aaamusic | On 18, Sep 2011

London, 16th September

Of all the nightmare scenarios a band could have; the one that struck Young Guns last Friday night takes some beating. The band are playing the biggest headline show of their career, in their adopted home-town, capping off a triumphant campaign for their debut album “All Our Kings Are Dead”, in front of a near sold out, nigh on hysterical crowd and after hurtling through the opening numbers “Elements” and “Sons of Apathy”, they realise that they have just played in pitch darkness. The lights are out. And they aren’t coming on. At this point vocalist Gustav Wood would probably like to think that any second now he’ll wake up in a panic, but no, this is really happening. The band trudges offstage and presumably asks themselves one question, how the shitting hell do they turn this night around?

 

And it was all going so well. After stirring support sets from Dangerous! The Xcerts and Every Avenue the near capacity crowd was delirious when the houselights did finally go down and the bands portentous intro played. Following that the openers were dispatched with the ruthless aplomb that only extensive touring can bring, and it all looked set to be a genuinely cracking night, but mere mortals can’t stop the gods of electricity from shitting in your shoes and so Wood returns to the stage with an offer, either they can pull the show (concept that doesn’t go down that well with the huddled and black-clad masses), or, they can soldier on without the huge production behind them. Obviously, the latter idea is rapturously received and so without further ado, the band returns to the stage. And do they salvage the night? Yup. And a hell of a lot more besides.

 

Any doubters of the Young Guns would have done very well to see them tonight, they had the odds stacked heavily against their favour and they were still utterly on fire, perhaps even more so than if the night had gone off without a hitch. A shortened set meant that a few slower numbers were jettisoned in favour of sticking to the sure-fire crowd pleasers, which were then tore through by a band with a lot to prove in this particular situation, and there’s no two ways about it, Young Guns were beyond phenomenal at the point where a show stopping performance was needed the most.

 

And they really needed one, people talk of stripped down and raw rock shows, but this was literally lit by one of the venues floodlights and nothing else, like taking a microscope to the most important performance of a bands career, and the most astonishing thing is that they pulled it off excellently, great songs rattle past, performed like the bands life depends on it, “Stitches” generates one of the biggest sing-alongs of the night, new songs Bones and Brothers In Arms point to promising things in the future for the band and the closing Weight Of The World tops the whole night off in astonishing style.

 

But perhaps I’m putting too much emphasis on the band’s ability to pull this heart stopping performance out of the bag. The patience and sheer devotion of the bands fan base is something I’ve very rarely seen, and the band know this, Wood seems genuinely moved  by the tumultuous reception his band are getting, and so he should be. In total, a night of extremes. Where the unfeeling gods of electricity yielded to the redemptive power of rock and roll. If you missed this, you missed out.

 

Author: Will Howard