GIG REVIEW: The Academy Is
- Posted on September 29, 2008 4:16 PM
- 0 comments
The Academy Is
Wedgewood Rooms - Portsmouth
Review by Laura Winser
On a chilly Sunday evening, I was at Portsmouth’s Wedgewood Rooms to see fresh, young pop punk band from Chicago, The Academy Is. Being my third time seeing the band, I was aware what I was getting myself into and excited to see what new songs the band would be playing.
As a band coming from the same record label as Fall Out Boy and Gym Class Heroes, it is clear that this band are going to be popular.
I turned up at the venue to see an army of young teenage girls who were clearly more excited about seeing heart throb lead singer William Beckett in action. As they await to see their heart throb, the first two acts gear the fans up for the main band.
Unfortunately, I arrived slightly late, which lead to missing the majority of the first band Maine, but by the reaction the screaming girls gave as I arrived throughout the last song, they seemed to have gone down well. As I picked a good spot to watch the second act We The Kings, it was their unexpected cover of The Gorillaz ‘Feel Good Inc’ that seem to take major effect on the audience, and went down a storm, even with the older fans like myself.
After the two support bands had come off stage, screams were heard from all around the venue, as the lights went down and out of no where, The Academy Is lead singer Beckett jumped on stage, in which these screams progressed even louder and everybody was jumping up and down in excitement, and I was dancing along in no time.
The band opened up the last night of their UK tour with a classic from their album Santi, which was Neighbours. At this point the audience seemed to go crazy for the band and they seemed to love the attention, as Beckett strutted around the stage to hundreds of screams and cheers.
As I had not yet heard any songs from their new album Fast Times at Barrington High, I was excited about hearing new material and intrigued as to how well they would go down with the fans. Well, extremely well, and the audiences sung their hearts out to along with the band. Unlike some bands, The Academy Is played a mixture of songs from all their albums, so everybody seemed to know songs, I was extremely happy they played the old classics from my favourite album Almost Here, in which they played Classified, Checkmarks and The Phrase that Pays, which seemed to be the highlight of the night, I know it most definitely was for me anyway, as I sung and danced away as I snapped away with my camera.
As the night unfortunately came to an end, they did an encore of two songs, one from the new album and an old favourite that the audiences seemed to love. It had unfortuntly come to an end and as hundreds of girls waited outside for the band to meet them, I headed off home, buzzing from the loud music and energy that had surrounded the venue.
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