Lostprophets at the Forum

Lostprophets at the Forum

23 October, 2009
by: Simon827

Tonight's Russian Standard Vodka sponsored gig at the Kentish Town Forum is a bit of a Welsh showcase, which shouldn't be a bad thing because, as I've said before, it seems people from Wales have little else to do other than make good music.

Part of the 2009 Q Awards Week, the (hopefully) spectacular gig is kicked off by The New 1920s. The boys are a good start to the night and remind me of a Welsh New Found Glory which is fun. However, there aren't any songs that particularly jump out at me but they're worth a watch.

A nice surprise this evening are second headliners The Blackout. Brilliantly entertaining as ever and the horde of emo kids covering the downstairs seem terribly excited. Everyone else just seems a little confused when vocalist Sean Smith repeatedly forward flips and keeps landing on his arse. The brilliant thing about The Blackout is their inability to take themselves seriously. Any band who uses their own name repeatedly in a song is obviously being a little tongue in cheek and it's just great fun. But maybe I've got the wrong end of the stick and I've just really offended them. Either way though, I enjoyed it.

It's almost an hour before Lostprophets appear on stage (and then proceed to milk it for a further few minutes before the even play a song). They open with new track 'It's Not the End of the World But I Can See it From Here' which is almost worth the wait. Live it reminds me oddly of Pendulum and suggests that Lostprophet's new album will head down a heavier road.

A good few songs into the set and we've been treated to some Lostprophet classics ('A Town Called Hypocrisy') as well as a few more random choices. And then Ian Watkins decides he doesn't want to play anymore and talks for a couple of minutes, which would be ok if we could understand a word he was bloody saying thanks to a combination of the microphone and his thick accent (which I'm sure at one point had gone American… Apparently he's Welsh again.) Still, it gave me time to get more Russian Standard Vodka without missing a song.

Eventually they get back into playing but there's a bit of a lull in the middle of the set (as there often is) but this is quickly picked up again by 'Rooftops' which gets everyone singing. But again, a couple of songs later, Ian starts talking, and we're music-less for another two minutes. This is getting annoying now.

The boys are only saved by a massive finish involving 'Last Train Home', 'Shinobi vs Dragon Ninja' and lastly 'Burn Burn' which gets everyone in the room on their feet. An impressive ending, but the lack of an encore gets people's backs up a little.

Not the best performance I've ever seen, but not bad either. I'm sure there's a word for that…

The Russian Standard Vodka Q Award Week rounds off with a performance from Paloma Faith tonight.

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Simon827