All Time Low, Kingston Hippodrome 22.03.2015

Less than four months into 2015 and All Time Low have already had a co-headline arena tour of the UK, shot what is set to be a spectacular live DVD at London’s Wembley Arena and are now drip feeding us songs from their upcoming album Future Hearts. But the pop-punk legends didn’t fail to deliver a classic acoustic performance at Kingston’s Hippodrome which took over-joyed fans back to a simpler time. 

All Time Low are no strangers to first-rate acoustic shows. In 2009 their MTV Unplugged special CD entered the Top 25 Alternative Chart in the US not to mention an abundance of well-watched stripped down You Tube videos.

But since everything the Baltimore rockers do is doused in an exceptional level of success, with only more to come, it would be easy to assume that these days are long behind them.

Thankfully that’s not the case and there was nowhere more apt to prove that then at Kingston’s Hippodrome, where they played a similar set back in 2013.

Kicking off with 2009’s Damned If I Do Ya (Damned If I Don’t) the nostalgic scene was well and truly set but the crowd was soon reminded what year it was with the much more recent belters, Backseat Serenade and Somewhere in Neverland, all performed to the bands trademark flawless standard and decorated with dick jokes.

Of course it wasn’t all yearning and reminiscence. It was technically a launch show after all and it was only fitting to present their new offering Kids In The Dark, the video for which recently popped up on the internet delighting fans across the world.

One highlight of the night for any die-hard fan came when frontman Alex Gaskarth was left alone to perform Remembering Sunday, from So Wrong It’s Right, the 2007 album that catapulted them into the pop-punk hall of fame. To make it that much more special Gaskarth wasn’t alone for long as he was eventually joined by The Voice US 2012 winner, and Hey Monday vocalist, Cassadee Pope.

With so much exceptional work coming from this band since 2007 some may have forgotten that their stellar song writing goes way back, but playing Remembering Sunday and Therapy back to back once again soon helped to remind us that these guys have all been honing these skills for years and they were pretty good to start with.

Real crowd pleasers followed in the form of Weightless and Dear Maria, Count Me In but at this point the mass were just pleased to be in their company. Never has a band had such a rapport with their fans, wearing masks given to them by the audience and discussing their various travel arrangements: “You travelled for 13 hours to be here? Why? You didn’t have to do that.”

But closing the show with another new song, Something’s Gotta Give, it was all of a sudden really obvious why this night was special. This is a band who are so good at writing songs that they can still play them and get the exact same reaction they did 6 years ago. Not one of the new songs they have released has disappointed their extensive fan base yet and it’s clear that in another 6 years these guys will still be going strong and still be playing, and writing, what can only be considered as anthems.

EofE - Beards, Jager with Sprite and Fifa

EofE has a remarkable 2014, touring with the likes of McBusted and The Vamps as well as playing a sold out hometown shown in Birmingham. 

Now they are attacking 2015 with a new single, Stars in Hollywood, to be released on March 9^th and a debut album to follow.

We caught up with the guys just before their pretty impressive set at Nottingham’s acclaimed Rock City (06/03) and made them face Louder Now’s Six Stupid Questions:

Who’s the last person on earth you would want to be stuck in a lift with?

Reece: Tom

Dan: Yeah, if you spent a week on a bus with him you would know why.

Nicky: Hitler!

Dan: If you met Hitler, you would be dead now.

Nicky: Yeah but I would want to ask him some questions, like, what are you playing at?

You’re offered half a million dollars to change all the lyrics to one of your songs for an irritating commercial. Do you consider it?

Luke: No. Half a million isn’t that much really is it?

Reece: Half a million isn’t that much? I wouldn’t mind that!

Luke: Yeah but it’s not half a million just for me is it? I’d have to split it with all of you.

Reece: Even if they offered us £50. I could do with a tenner.

Luke: I would do it for a million probably but it would depend on what the company was. I wouldn’t do it for Coca Cola. I would definitely do it for Durex. I would take £400,000 for Durex.

Is there anything you know this week that you didn’t know last week?

Dan: What I smell like if I haven’t showered for a week.

Tom: We already knew that.

Dan: Well there’s also no Nando’s in Nuneaton. I had to have Subway and then a pizza after, which to be fair was quite nice.

Reece: This week I found out that Jagermeister tastes really nice with Sprite. Those were the only two options on the bus. It was nice!

Nicky: I learnt that if you down a pitcher of Zombie…it will make you sick in your bunk.

Reece: He was laughing about the fact that he was sick in his sleep as well. You could have died. 

Have you ever had nightmares because of a film you saw?

All: Yes.

Nicky: The last scary thing I saw was Halloween and my sister had the mask in her room and I think I dreamt that I walked upstairs to her room and Michael Myers was there.

Tom: When was that?

Nicky: Last week.

Tom: I did not like the film It.  Luke had a meme on his phone of the clown in It and it was exactly the nightmare I had.

When was the last time you screamed at the TV?

Reece: Probably something football related, maybe the World Cup?

Nicky: Game of Thrones. Have you seen it? *THE FOLLOWING HAS BEEN OMITTED FOR SPOILER ALERT REASONS* I absolutely screamed at the TV when that happened.

Tom: Fifa! We have this place where we all go to write songs (aka Dan’s house) and when it gets to midnight and we’re all really frustrated we tend to play Fifa. We were India, the worst team we could think of , but we were doing so well and then we just got knocked out.

Nicky: We lost 14 – 0 to Brazil.

Tom: The heart just wasn’t in it to be honest.

Dan: We all let the side down.

If you could chose, what decade would you most like to have been born in?

Reece: The 60’s, so I could be in my twenties in the 80’s. As long as I could get away with having long permed hair and wearing leather trousers and a leather jacket. I should be allowed to grow my hair.

Tom: You ARE allowed to grow your hair. You decided to cut it off and grow it on your face!

Reece: It’s an ongoing argument because I’m the only one who can grow a beard.

Luke: Well that’s just not true.

Reece: Yes it is.

Luke: No, because I can grow a beard.

Reece: No you can’t.

Luke: Yeah. I can. I just choose not to.

Tom: I would want to be born in the 60’s too so I can write all the best tunes that came out in the 70s and 80s. Reece copied me to make me look like an idiot. My answer was better.

Dan: I would want to be born in the early 40s so I could be in my prime in the 50s and 60s and then get old in the 80s.

Nicky: I would probably want to be born back when caveman was around.

Dan: What like 10,000 BC.

Nicky: Yeah. That was a good year. Back when they started tribal drumming and it wasn’t spoilt by silly guitars and stuff.

Luke: I would go for Victorian times. It seems like it was a better time back then.

Reece: I can so see you being a chimney sweep.

Luke: I wouldn’t be a chimney sweep, I would invent something like the telephone, you know what I mean? Make loads of money!