Maintaining a strong and loyal fanbase so far away from your homeland must be a huge undertaking. For UK rockers You Me at Six, that apparently wasn’t too difficult to accomplish. Sure, they don’t sell out 3000+ capacity venues like they do across the pond, but the level of dedication is definitely apparent here in the States. So YM@6 teamed up with US punk natives The Swellers, and brought along Twin Atlantic and We Are the Ocean for a co-headlining US tour.
To open up the day’s festivities, London, England’s We Are the Ocean took the stage and attempted to win the crowd over to their Alexisonfire-meets-YM@6 style of music. Sticking mostly to their newest album, Go Now and Live, WATO wasted little time going through their set. New songs like “What It Feels Like” and “Runaways” had just enough pop accessibility to please the indecisive crowd, but that didn’t mean that WATO didn’t have heavy songs. “Overtime is a Crime” and older song “Nothing Good Has Happened Yet” aimed to get the crowd moving (the former even got lead vocalist Dan Brown into the crowd for a…circle pit of sorts). While Brown had some rough patches to overcome in his screaming, vocalist/guitarist Liam Cromby was exceptional, channeling his inner Dallas Green throughout the set. For the band’s first time ever playing in Chicago, they seemed to do pretty well for themselves.
We Are the Ocean setlist:
What It Feels Like
Runaways
Overtime is a Crime
Confessions
Nothing Good Has Happened Yet
The Waiting Room
Due to sickness, Scotland’s Twin Atlantic was only able to play a 3-song set, but the quickness and urgency proved effective. A few hardcore fans in the crowd sang and jumped along to the song, but the rest of the group listened intently. The band’s sound is hard to pinpoint: they had snippets of Boys Like Girls-esque pop rock at one moment, and the next you could hear a very definitive blink-182 influence, with maybe a Saves the Day/Bayside thing going on. It was hard to tell with such a short set, but the crowd was pleased with the outcome.
Being the only American band on a US tour must’ve been a bit odd, but Flint, Michigan punks The Swellers handled themselves just fine. For the band’s first proper co-headiner, The Swellers took full advantage of their timeframe and occupied a ‘play more, talk less’ mentality. Aside from myself and a solid 5-6 other fans, the crowd was mainly new to the band, so an even set of material from all 3 albums was a smart move. Vocalist/guitarist Nick Diener’s average-yet-passionate vocals were spot on, making songs like ballistic opener “Runaways” or fan favorite “Welcome Back Riders” very enjoyable for everyone. To add to that, backing vocals from bassist Anto Boros (who always brings a ton of energy to the show) and drummer Jonathon Diener added an extra layer to The Sweller’s song choices. Overall, the band performed one of the strongest sets I’ve seen in a while. The crowd may have been full of You Me at Six fangirls, but I noticed a ton of people buying Good For Me, The Swellers’ latest album, after the show. That’s a good indication of how things went.
The Swellers setlist:
Runaways
Inside My Head
Welcome Back Riders
The Flood
Parkview
Fire Away
2009
Bottles
Warming Up
Stars
Dirt
Best I Ever Had
To the delight of the crowd of fans, You Me at Six took the stage and got things started with a rousing rendition of “Loverboy”, the lead track off of Sinners Never Sleep, the band’s latest album. Sounding tighter and more cohesive than past times I’ve seen them, YM@6 put on quite a great show. I ducked out of the crowd to watch from the back, but the sound was still thunderous; vocalist Josh Franceschi parallels his studio voice with his live one perfectly and has no problem getting a crowd moving with his theatrics and energy. The same can be said for the other band members, as they all played with intensity and precision. Disregarding Take Off Your Colours and sticking entirely to Hold Me Down and Sinners, YM@6 raced through an oddly short set of some of their best songs. “The Consequence” was a loud number that got the crowd off their feet, and “Jaws on the Floor” got them singing at the top of their lungs; from the outside of the crowd, the sight of that many loyal fans was quite an experience. Fan favorite “Bite My Tongue” was exhilarating, and the lack of Oli Sykes’ cameo was barely noticed, as Franceschi took over the gutteral screams at the end. By the end of “Underdog”, the band proved that they had a loyal following in the states, as the crowd was enamored for the entirety of the set.
You Me at Six setlist (out of order slightly):
Loverboy
Stay With Me
Jaws on the Floor
Liquid Confidence
The Consequence
Little Death
Safer to Hate Her
Bite My Tongue
Underdog
