Lower Than Atlantis / Boston Manor / The Faim – York Fibbers – 13/05/18
Opening the evening were The Faim (8), hailing from Australia, finding themselves in York their pop rock sounds, reminiscent of Panic! At The Disco and Fall Out Boy were infectious. Great harmonies, catchy melodies and a very upbeat energy, even though they had literally about 2 metres of space on stage due to the headliners backline, they open the evening in fantastic fashion, closing with Saints of the Sinners, their newest single.
Blackpool’s own Boston Manor (9) followed the Aussies, once again, with about 2 metres of space, but they make their own space. Bringing their angst punk stylings to this now sweaty as sin venue, their set leaked energy and passion. With ones such as Trapped Nerve and newest single Drowned In Gold making the crowd move, crowd surfers begin to hit their wave and voices get gradually louder, singer Henry Cox rekindles his past experience playing York with a former hardcore band. Long story short, they were hardcore and the charity crowd they played to were not, consisting of mostly children and OAPs. A gig’s a gig!
After an recently playing headline shows in the US, simply put this is most likely the last time you’ll be seeing Boston Manor in a tiny venue like Fibbers for a while, with a growing fanbase and unique thrash-punk sound, they’ll continue to grow. The crowd know this and make the most of their set, closing with Laika, the band’s biggest single (recently surpassing 3.5 million plays on Spotify), Blackpool can be proud of their five lads who truly were on the verge of stealing the show entirely…until that is.
It was time for Lower Than Atlantis (9) to grace their stage. Now with slightly more space than before, the four piece launched themselves in with a relentless opener in the form of Had Enough, immediately feeding the crowd energy as the sweatbox got that little bit sweatier.
Mike Duce, ever the showman, is all over the stage, demanding the crowd jump and dance, as they gladly do, much to his joy. As the band rattle through the first few songs of their set and through a couple of technical issues, likely due to the oven that Fibbers has quickly turned into, with singles in the form of Emily and Ain’t No Friend, from their incredibly popular 2014 album, Lower Than Atlantis, the crowd continue to give as good as they get.
It’s a pleasure to see these kinds of songs played in such an intimate setting, really showing the diversity of what LTA have produced over their near 11 year careers. Going into some older material, ‘wrote for the purpose of getting crowds to bounce’, exclaims Duce as the band start Far-Q. A tiny circle pit opens in the tiny space that’s available on the Fibbers floor, in which Duce then jumps into the middle of as the band continue to play an instrumental version, really allowing for drummer Eddy Thrower to show off his talents. Seriously, one of the most underrated drummers in the UK right now.
A highlight for the evening came in the form of Another Sad Song. Arguably the band’s biggest festival song, Duce once again takes to the crowd, however he’s holding an acoustic guitar, no microphone. He makes the crowd sit down, much like a campout setting and begins to play an acoustic rendition, as the crowd sit deadly still but sing along, more impressively singing along in tune (one person was even going for it with the harmonies, respect). This moment almost epitomised the need for this tour. This is something very few bands of this size can do, sell out a show in York in 2018, then pull this out of the bag as well. Safe to say, the room joined together and a magic feeling was in the air, full well knowing that this was a tour exclusive and wasn’t ever happening again.
Taking back to the stage and the full electric band, they dive straight into the chaos of 2012’s Love Someone Else, immediately followed by the hugely successful Beech Like The Tree. Finishing the set with a flurry of newer material in the form of I Would and Words Don’t Come So Easily, the band leave the stage to rapturous applause, only to appear again for two more songs. Both from the aforementioned Lower Than Atlantis album, English Kids In America (that little lick always gets me, genius) and ending with one of the band’s strongest songs Here We Go, extended to approximately 6 minutes with jamming, Duce crowd surfing with lobbing his guitar around and crowd surfers galore going over the tiny barrier at the front of the venue, capping off a truly unique and unforgettable evening. The band play this year’s Slam Dunk festival, so if you missed them on this tour, don’t be silly, you’re in for a treat at Slam D!
Check out more ive photos of Lower Than Atlantis in York here!
(PLEASE DO NOT CROP OR EDIT PHOTOS)
Photo Credit: © Danny Peart Photography 2018
