Young Guns Live Review + 5 Other bands

Over the weekend I again had the pleasure of seeing another incredible band live, this time it was Young Guns in Cardiff at the Millennium Music Hall. Young Guns are an alternative rock band that consists of Gus Wood, John and Fraser Taylor, Simon Mitchell and Ben Jolliffe. They released their EP 'Mirrors' last year and released their début album 'All Our Kings Are Dead' earlier this year and have been making quite a splash appearing on covers of Kerrang, which, for their young age in the life cycle of a rock band, is pretty impressive. Not only did I get to see them live but five others as well; it was like a mini festival.

First to take to the stage was, I'm ashamed to say, a band I still don't know the name of. There was four of them and they made a true assault on the crowd. Instead of being shy and making no eye contact with the crowd as most opening support bands tend to do this band got right up in your face, literally. The singer jumped off stage and shouted to his hearts content into the crowd and truly invaded the front rows personal space. Mostly taken aback and unsure of what to make of it the crowd never really allowed themselves to be submerged in the music of this unknown band, probably because the singer was a bit manic singing one song then stopping and starting a new one part way through and at one point singing an unaccompanied version of 'Poker Face' by Lady Gaga. However contrary to the rest of this paragraph they weren't bad and the crowd didn't dislike them, it just wasn't quite sure what to make of them. Their songs also weren't bad, a little rap like in places which didn't do anything for me but did go down well with others and a bit too similar but I would've happily listened to more.

Next on was the conundrum that it Japanese Voyeurs. They had some of the best music of the whole night with complicated yet accessible bass riffs, interesting guitar melodies and distorted undertones on the keyboard but the singers voice...Her voice was high pitched, nasally and whiny. To put it bluntly it ruined the music. I'm not being sexist as I know that the music industry, especially rock, is dominated by men but her voice sounded like she was trying too hard to sound different and this made it inaccessible for much of the crowd and the band were less well received than the first one. Whilst watching her I did feel emphatic because she was trying so hard to win the crowd over and express her music but it just didn't transfer. It's a real shame because their music was so good but I wouldn't recommend this band.

After Voyeurs on came Set Your Goals. Set Your Goals are a post-punk and hardcore band from California. It was obvious from the second they came on stage that a lot of the crowd had already heard and liked their music because they instantly went for it. The rest of us were left a little perplexed because their music was all right, nothing mind blowing. However as their set continued they won over more and more of the crowd with their energetic performance and were overall a good band, but not a great band. I wouldn't personally go out of my way to see this band again.

Next on was The Swellers who are a punk band from Michigan and to sum it up they were fantastic. They won over pretty much the whole crowd and got us all head banging and jumping to their music. The songs were accessible and easy to join in with as much of the crowd starting to sing along even though this was the first time they'd heard it and they showed a range of songs within their set as well which was made it so much better. Instead of just doing their heaviest songs as many support bands do to get the crowd moving they played some slightly slower more melancholy songs which took us on a journey with them. The music had clear guitar solos and riffs that was refreshing after hours of chords. A highlight of the set was when all of the previous bands and Young Guns jumped the stage and sang along with them for a chorus before quickly running off again as it was their last night all playing together. Swellers formed a good rapport with the crowd joking with us about buying a "welsh spoon" for the singers girlfriend (although my friends and I didn't know what that was and assumed it was a euphemism until we were informed later on what it was), proposing marriage with their Canadian bassist and declaring that their guitarist had "all UK blood". We also met them after the show and they were genuinely nice guys and happy to sign our stuff and chat. I would recommend this band as they played a brilliant set.

Then finally, after hours, Young Guns took to the stage. Opening with 'Sons of Apathy' the crowd went insane. We all instantly surrendered ourselves to the music and chanted each and every lyric along with Gus who was jumping around stage and punching the air with each stressed syllable. The band were like a pack all moving as one, jumping at the same time and effortlessly navigating the small stage and playing in perfect time. Absolutely all the songs were played to the same standard as the studio recording but coupled with the charismatic and energetic performance it made for an amazing gig. One of the funniest moments was when Gus, as usual was jumping around and landed it wrong and fell flat on his back, laughed down the mic, carried on singing, waved his legs in the air then jumped up and carried on, with the only reference to his fall at the end of the song where he asked the crowd "if there was any chance anyone didn't see him fall flat on his arse?" to which the we all just chuckled thus confirming his fears. They played a fantastic set, each song played perfectly and with huge support from the crowd as we jumped, head banged, punched the air and sang along to each song seemingly to the pleasant surprise of the band. Gus kept saying how none of them had expected Cardiff to be this good and for us to be this "amazing" and repeatedly thanked us for being so great and ending their tour on a high.



Set list given to us by one of the stage managers belonging to John

 Upon leaving the stage, then reappearing after we all chanted for more they started up again with 'At The Gates' which was one of the highlights of the set as we sung louder than before and it gave a new dimension just like Swellers, but more effective as we all knew and loved the songs already, and took the crowd on a journey of emotions. Another highlight was when Gus jumped off the stage and stood pressed against the barrier and sung into the mass of bodies and put the mic up to people at which the crowd went wild and tried to pull him into it. Also when Simon and John stood on the amps at the front of the stage and sung along with us all and beamed at the crowd.
Finishing with 'Weight of the World' Young Guns played an unbelievable set and the only problem was the length of it but given time to release more fantastic albums they could easily become rock royalty. So was it worth hours travelling to get there, lining up in the freezing cold for an hour and being a complete zombie the next day? Hell yeah! I recommend everyone who is a fan of rock to see this band live or at the very least check out their album!

Below are some of their music videos as there were none recorded on the night.