Sum 41

Date : March 11th 2002
Venue :
Glasgow SECC
Support :
Reel Big Fish / Wilt

The second we graced the SECC teritory, we were greeted by a massive cue, which came just about out of the door, and stretched round every obsticle in its way, so much they wouldnt even let us up to look at the merchandise because the doors were about to open, so in we went to be greeted by an arena with a very varied audience, but most of it was pop-punk kids. After meeting up with everyone, it was just about time for tonights openers, so off we went into the crowd.

I hadn't heard anything by Wilt before, but I was told off of one person they were indie rock, similair to the Foo Fighters, and off another that they were all out indie, and weren't even a mosh pit worthy band. But all that was wrong. They sounded like a 1000000 times more energetic Wheatus, and the front man even looked like the Wheatus bloke (sorry I don't know his name). From the very start of their set, I was a part of one of the most insane crowds ever, with the expected jumping crew, and then where I was, the oober-aggressive mosh pit, where me and my mate both nearly lost shoes. As their set continued, the songs were all starting to sound the very similair to one another, with repetitive choruses, and catchy riffs and vocals, so not repetitive in a bad sense. Throughout the whole of the WIlt set the crowd was constantly mental, no matter the style of the song. Wilt packed up their short set, with a song called 'Take Me Home' which is the only song title of theirs I can remember, and they were really, a very good opening band in the end, and after hearing them, Sum 41 couldn't really of chosen a better opening band. I'm sorry the review of Wilt couldn't of been more detailed, but I really don't know anything about the band, or their music.

Waiting for Reel Big Fish to come on, was one of the longest waits ever, but I knew for a fact that they would be worth it. But when the light eventually go down, their is an absoloutely huge cheer for RBF, who recently have built themselves a very good fan base, which they deserved more than a lot of bands. They arrived on stage to the theme from Star Wars I think, and when they do, front man, Aaron Barret, and Trombonist Dan Regan, start running from end to end of the stage waving and starting to do what they do better than any other band, wrapping the crowd round their little fingers. The only critisism i'd have for their whole set, is that they chose what was probably the worst opener possible, although it is a good song, just not a good opener, and the song is 'Everything Sucks'. But as far as openers go, the crowd don't seem to care, they already love them! Everywhere you look, the kids are skanking, bouncing, pitting or whatever else, even the people in the seats are jumping around now, a tad dangerous, but hey! The set continues with 'The Kids Don't Like It', and 'I'll Never Be', which the crowd are still going like wildfire to. Throughout the set they keep reminding us of two things - 1. We are the Reel Big Fish, and 2. We have a new CD out now called Favourite Noise (which I will be reviewing once I get it). Next up was 'The Set Up', and then the brand new song from Favourite Noise, A Little Doubt Goes A Long Way, which is the generic Reel Big Fish song, with its immense Guitar, funny lyrics, and daft noises (the intro and a couple of breakdowns in the song consist of only - uhh uhh), and if they don't release that as a single and get it very high, then i'll be damned. Somewhere amongst the first part of the set was She Has A GIrlfriend Now, where Scott, the trumpetist, stood in for the usual woman, with his high voice, and several different versions of Suburban Rythym, including the blues, heavy metal, and normal versions of the song. One thing I had noticed about the set was the lack of RBF classics, but they were starting to flood in now, firstly with Beer, and their cover of Ahha's Take On Me, two very good sing a longs, both from the infamous BASEketball movie, which they starred in alongside Matt Stone, and Trey Parker. And predictible or what..they finsihed off the set with Sell Out, which they finally have the video out for over here, and it went straight in at number 3, which it done similair to in the USA, about 4 and a half years a go. One big thing about their set, was the lack of songs, such as 'Somebody Hates Me', 'Trendy', and 'Alternative, Baby', which would've made the set that little bit better. But despite the abscence of those songs, the set really couldn't be beaten, and from then, I knew that no matter how well Sum 41 played, they weren't going to get anywhere near RBF as far as performance went. Lets hope Aaron'll stick to his word and bring RBF back in the Summer for a tour!

I knew RBF were going to be the highlight of the night the second that I seen they were the support, so no matter what Sum 41 pulled off they couldn't out-stage RBF at all. Sum 41 came onstage to two things, 1. The Introduction To Destruction, and 2. A huge uproar of girly screams. And to everyones surprise they opened with their near-hardcore tune 'Never Wake Up', which was quite possibly the best song they could've chose to open with, as it gets an immediate insanity going. After their 50 seconds of insanity, Bizzy D quickly picked up his guitar, and they bounced their way into latest smash 'Motivation', which with its huge popularity on a good deal of music programmes and radio stations, gets a great reaction from the crowd. So far in the set, Sum 41 had actually impressed me quite substantially, and this had already been one of the best gigs i'd ever been to. As the set continued, the crowd energy stayed at an all time high for the SECC, and Sum 41's performance level stayed very high, playing mainly songs from latest album 'All Killer No Filler', including 'Heart Attack', 'Handle This' 'Nothing On My Back', and of course the songs which got some of the best receptions of the night, hit singles 'Fat Lip, and 'In Too Deep'. But amongst that they managed to find some time to slot in some older songs from 'Half Hour Of Power', including 'Machine Gun', 'Makes No Difference', and rap / rock / hardcore crossover 'Dave's Possessed Hair / It's What We're All About'. During the set, they set aside a little bit of time to show off their musical abilitie, first off with Stevo 32's drum solo, which was very very impressive, and even his drum kit was cool, with two bass drums, with stars on them, and one said Sum, the other 41. And also, Brownsound, and Bizzy D managed to get into a dispute about who was best on guitar, so they had a guitar solo war, but Brownsound clearly won, due to the superiority of his solo, and the far louder cheer for his. I can't remember what they closed with, but as allways they arrived back onstage, and played the predictible, 'Pain For Pleasure', which pleased just about everyone in the absoloutely massive audience when RBF frontman Aaron Barret showed himself onstage to help out with the guitar, and then, my personal favourite Sum 41 song, 'Summer' which i feared they weren't going to play.

One thing I noticed about the audience, when I went out half was through to take a piss, was that the height of the audience was getting progressivley smaller, obviously avoiding the good crowd, right in the middle, in fear of their lifes. But despite the kids, the show was quite unbeatable, all the bands played very impressive sets, the crowd was up to a lot, with Wilt getting one of the most violent pits i've ever seen!

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