A mixed day for Me Vs Hero. First day of tour and also the release date of their debut album ‘Days That Shape Our Lives’, but on the down side, their CDs haven’t arrived so they don’t have any to sell at the gig and they end up stuck in traffic all day, only arriving at the venue 15 minutes before their set. This causes them to cut their set time by 15 minutes, and leaves many people still queuing to get into the venue (myself included) when they start. I only managed to catch the last four songs due to the massive queue, but I’m glad I got to see them. Me Vs Hero do pop punk better than any other band in the UK at the moment. Due to not getting a proper soundtrack there’s a few technical problems, and when they finally get to play ‘A Loss In The Ranks’ singer Sam Thompson finds it hard to complete a song in memory of Alex Mcculloch. The band finish the set with ‘Can You Count Suckers’ whilst diving around as the moshpit explodes with crowdsurfers.

Deaf Havana have had a great 2010 despite losing screamer Ryan at the start of the year. Although the band are from Kings Lynn, Norwich is treated like a hometown show, full of family and friends as well as packed with fans. Just over a year ago Deaf Havana were playing the 100 capacity marquee, but thanks to the success of Friends Like These, and new single Smiles All Round, on Kerrang!, and Scuzz they managed to almost sell out the Waterfront. It’s great to see a local band doing so well, but this is down to years of hard work finally paying off. The band focus heavily on the new material from their forthcoming album (out sometime in 2011), starting the set with ‘My Life Is Average’ and ‘Smiles All Round’. James has become a great frontman in a short space of time.

Deaf Havana have managed to reinvent themselves as a new band, and managed to keep their fans as well as gaining many more. Tonight is a celebration of the years of hard work, as well as a nod towards the bright future of the band. As a split headliner gig the band only get enough time to play 9 songs ending with a great version of ‘Friends Like These’ which they have adapted so it doesn’t miss the lack of screaming.

More photos from the gig at www.jonluton.com

Deaf Havana + Me Vs Hero + There For Tomorrow
1st November 2010
Norwich Waterfront

In advance of their joint headline tour in November, Norwich Gigs caught up with Sam, singer of Me Vs Hero, to find out more about the band.

How would you describe the Me Vs Hero sound?
I wouldn’t say we’re too difficult to grasp. We have a massive pop punk foundation with little sprinkles of hardcore and metal.

What/Who has been the biggest influence over Me Vs Hero, musically and lyrically?
We draw influences from so many things, and so many bands. We couldn’t just say that one band is the main source of our creativity, it’s so far from that. Our influences range from blink to august burns red, that’s quite a mix of genres to draw on.

Tell us about your debut album?
Our debut album was a lot of hard work, sleepless nights, and some of the most exciting times of our lives. It’s really rewarding when you finish Writing a song, all that effort you put into it really pays off and it’s even better hearing it recorded perfectly. For us the obvious choice was to get the album produced at Long Wave Studios with Romesh (Kids in Glass Houses, Funeral for a Friend). He grilled us on an army like regime, but we are so happy with the end results.

You’re touring with There For Tomorrow and Deaf Havana in November, what do you think of these bands? How did the tour come about?
I’d recently heard of Deaf Havana and was completely blown away, managed to catch their set at this years Slam Dunk festival too. Instantly felt like it was a band we wanted to tour with, it’s really refreshing to be able to tour with bands that you genuinely admire as musicians. We asked our manager and booking agent to pose the question and the tour was booked a month later with the addition of There For Tomorrow, which was a very welcome addition to the tour.

What has been the best thing to happen for the band this year?
I’m hoping the best thing to happen to us is this album release, were only on pre orders and free album stream at the moment, but the response is overwhelming to say the least! (The album can be heard in full at http://www.rocksound.tv/news/article/me-vs-hero-album-stream-exclusive)

What are the plans for the band after the November tour?
We plan to continue writing for our second album straight after the tour. We’re currently sorting new awesome tours that we hope will stretch a little further than just the UK. Other than that we’ll be releasing new merch and looking forward to the start of the summer festival season.

Me Vs Hero release their debut album ‘Days That Shape Our Lives’ On 18th October.

Back in August we caught up with Chris and Lee to talk about Deaf Havana: