Against Me! – Portsmouth 17/11/14 – Live Review
Against Me! + Billy The Kid
Portsmouth, The Wedgewood Rooms 17/11/14
At the start of this year, Against Me! released their latest album “Transgender Dysphoria Blues” and let’s be honest, it’s an incredible album and bound to be right up there at the end of the year in most people’s picks for album of the year. Finally the band brought the album live to the UK. In the last 12 months the band has really hit the mainstream mainly cause of Tom Gabel’s transition to Laura Jane Grace, but the music is as amazing as ever.
Support was provided by Canadian singer-songwriter, Billy The Kid. This one woman acoustic mix of blue-rock-Americana was a real treat. Promoting her fourth album “Horseshoes & Hand Grenades”, the set was extremely enjoyable as Billy explains how her latest album was produced by Frank Turner and he appears on “This Sure As Hell Ain’t My Life’” – a strong track that the assembled crowd seemed to enjoy. With well penned songs, that are heartfelt and tell a story, Billy The Kid is going to be a force to be reckoned with on the acoustic circuit. Very much impressed by what I heard tonight.
And then it was time for Against Me!…
Opening up with the powerhouse track “Fuckmylife666” from the latest album, the crowd are instantly involved and into it. But to then stick “Pints Of Guinness Make You Strong” in, just got the whole crowd pumped up and singing along to lines like “And just like James, I’ll be drinking Irish tonight” – for me their finest song and guaranteed to get me singing every time!
The band themselves seemed to be on fire tonight and really enjoying the show. Laura Jane Grace was happy, enigmatic on stage and beamed with enjoyment. Against Me! really looked like they were having the time of their lives right now, at this smallish venue in Portsmouth. The crowd (which included TV nature expert Chris Packham) were very much along for the ride as well, singing along, bouncing – it really was one of those shows where both the band and the audience were feeding off each other’s energy, a truly perfect example of how a gig should be.
Against Me! spat out a great mix of tracks across their albums, the likes of “Don’t Lose Touch”, “New Wave”, “I Was A Teenage Anarchist”, “True Trans Soul Rebel”, “Unconditional Love”, “Black Me Out”, “Drinking With The Jocks”, “Cliché Guevara” and “Borne On The FM Waves Of The Heart” which featured a rousing performance by Billy The Kid culminating in some crowd surfing on her part too.
Closing the set with “Miami”, “Rapid Decompression”, “Sink, Florida, Sink” and the sing-along “We Laugh At Danger (And Break All The Rules)”, Against Me! proved once again how amazing they are. Another top notch performance from them, they get better every time I see them. There is no way anybody left that room with anything less than a feeling of having just witnessed something incredible.
Mr. T
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