Tonight Alive, LostAlone and Blitz Kids

Tonight Alive, LostAlone and Blitz Kids

October 4th 2012

Manchester Academy 3

Last year my sister bought me tickets to the My Chemical Romance tour and although I really enjoyed their set it was one of their support acts that really  grabbed my attention that night. Since then I have been following the progress of LostAlone as they have gained respect from their fellow rockers and  gained column inches and airtime with Kerrang!.  So when I saw that they were going to be supporting Tonight Alive in Manchester I had to get tickets to see them.

Once inside the venue we headed up to the top floor of the Academy building where we found the merch stand and none other than LostAlone's drummer Mark.  I asked Mark to sign my ticket and he happily did so.  Pleased that I'd actually met one of the band I headed inside.

The Academy 3 at Manchester is a smaller more intimate venue at the top of the university student union and although small you still get a good atmosphere (and just enough room for a circle pit).

The night was kicked off by a group called the Blitz Kids, who although I had heard of them through twitter chatter I wasn't overly familiar with their material.  However, they started the show in style with a high energy performance full of catchy tunes/songs and really got the audience going.  They are a band that I will be looking out for in the future.

Next up were the trio I had bought my ticket to see and although I was a bit worried that they may not live up to my memories of them from the year before I was extremely happy to discover that they had got even better.

Playing songs from their album 'I'm a UFO in this City'  such as 'Creatures', 'Do You Get What You Pray For', and their latest release 'Vesuvius' amongst others they proved why they are worthy of their growing fan base.  Ending with my personal favourite 'Love Will Eat You Alive', they left the crowd on a real high as they left the stage. 

My only complaint was that I didn't get to hear 'Paradox On Earth' but Alan (Bass and vocals) later explained that they have played it every other night but they ran out of time as Steven (Guitar and vocals) decided to jump off the stage and round the audience members dotted around the outskirts of the room into one big group in front of the stage.  However I will let them off as it now gives me a good excuse to go and see them again!

Unfortunately Australian band Tonight Alive did not have the same impact as the other bands on the bill for me tonight. Don't get me wrong, they had good songs and the singer had a great voice when we could hear her, but her vocals were drowned out by the music for quite a bit of the show, so although you could hear the melody of the song you couldn't always make out the actual lyrics of the songs, which was a shame as they had a real energy and even managed to get a circle pit going.

They were also unfortunate enough to experience technical issues during the last couple of songs where they lost sound on their vocals altogether quite a few times.  Maybe a tweak in their sound levels would have helped as the parts where the vocals could be heard properly were really good.

However for me it was LostAlone that stole the show tonight!

After the show all three bands came out to the merch stand to meet their fans and I was lucky enough to get to meet Steve, Alan and Mark.  It's always nice to meet the members of a band you enjoy and find out that they are genuinely nice guys (unfortunately not all rock stars are!).

So Steven, Alan and Mark, thank you for making this fan girl extremely happy by  posing for photos with me and taking the time to sign my ticket and chat, as not all bands do make time for their fans.

I will definitely be going to see LostAlone again as soon as I get another chance and I'm certain that  we will see a lot more of these guys in the future.