All sorts have been going on. There was a
show on a London bus, a headline UK tour, and a string of signings so that the
several million Young Guns fans could get their hands on a signed copy of the
new album, Ones and Zeros.
If all of that just doesn’t seem to be enough
then we should mention that they also did an epic set at Kingston’s The Fighting Cocks. I know, I know, why
there right? Well a) the place is incredible and a rock music landmark and b)
Young Guns happened to play their first ever show there. Isn’t that neat?
Don’t panic, we got them to answer some Grab
Bag Q’s (following some ever so slight coercion) and you can read their answers
here.
The Buckinghamshire rockers burst onto the
stage with what has easily become our favourite Young Guns track to date. I Want Out was first played on Radio One
in August last year and is a beautifully articulate record that you can also lose
your mind too. If you’re going to see Young Guns live make sure you have your
jumping shoes on because when that chorus kicks in you’ll be thankful for it.
It’s also a strong indicator that Ones and
Zeros was written with a live show in mind, but not the first. That honour goes
to opening track Rising Up which was
the next treat for the tiny Kingston venue.
Throughout the album the chugging guitar
lines, relentless drum tracks and countless lyrics that are literally screaming
out for crowd participation show that this band are a live band and their short
set in Kingston proves this to be right. The recordings are sensational but on
stage, this band come alive and when you see it you understand why this band
were so deeply missed when they left our shores for a while.
When the band launch into The Weight of the World (the first Young
Guns song I ever heard) it was as if the whole crowd remembered that they were
all old friends. As lead singer, Gustav Wood, points out this was the first
track that they listened back to and realised that they could write songs. It
was the song that started it all and it proved to be a timeless rock classic
that will go down in history.
But we can’t think about the past for long as
the band are now moving quickly into Speaking
In Tongues and Daylight, both of
which are shining examples of eloquent lyricism mixed with the raw rock core we’ve
always seen from Young Guns but now with added dance quality. That’s something
we wouldn’t have necessarily expected this time last year but it works. It
really works.
Young Guns capped off this mini show with
2012 belter Bones as if to prove that
they might have been away but everything we loved about them three years ago is
as alive as ever. In fact, it’s got a whole lot stronger. Ones and Zeros is a
stellar effort and the live shows are out of this world.
Young Guns are rock heroes already, they just
have to do their time now.
The only problem is with shows in June, at 2
in the afternoon, in a basement, is that they tend to get a bit on the warm
side. But not to worry. Young Guns could have played all day long if they
wanted. We would have happily evaporated for them.
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