Fightstar

The Institute, Birmingham on Mon 23rd Feb 2015

Fightstar are a British, yes I did say British alternative rock band, is that seriously the genre they've been pigeon holed in?

Formed in 2003 after Charlie Simpson's well publicised split with teenyboppers Busted, the press had already poo-pooed the band before they even started.

Fightstar's debut album 'Grand Unification' which was released back in 2006 had received rave reviews, "one of the best British rock albums of the past decade" by Kerrang! Editor Paul Brannigan.

With four studio albums to their name, including one self-funded album, the band announced a hiatus in 2010 to concentrate on solo projects, obviously Charlie went away and did his thing and was very, very successful at it. And Al and Dan started a visual arts company called Horsie in the Hedge as well as setting up a side project up called Gunship.

The band planned a reunion gig - a one off show 16th December at the Forum in London to celebrate their 10th anniversary, this has been followed up with a 4 date UK Tour in 2015, which is now 3 dates due to Glasgow being cancelled, this includes Birmingham, Manchester and London.

Tonight is the first date of the tour. To say I am excited is a total understatement, I have followed Fightstar through their epic journey, much to my wife's dismay, (She doesn't like the harder more metally tunes).

"We're going to stuff the set full of our heaviest tracks." says Charlie Simpson. "We can't believe that 10 years has come around, so we're going to throw an almighty party for the loyal Fightstar fans that have been with us since the beginning."

Well, the wait was worth it, tonight Fightstar blew everyone out of the water with their epic tenth anniversary show. There were three support bands but unfortunately I got there just as the third band were departing the stage.

The audience were late twenty-something's and the venue was packed to the rafters, tonight was gonna be a rather sweaty affair to say the least.

Fightstar came on at 9.30 to rapturous applause from the punters, with a no frills set, just a Fightstar backdrop, it was all about the music, and boy how good was that.

A 20 song set, kicked off with the amazing 'Paint Your Target', followed by 'Build An Army' and then the stonking 'Grand Unification Part 1'.

'War Machine', 'We Apologise For Nothing' and '99', followed thereafter. There wasn't one song that stood out for me, it all stood out for me. I have so missed this band, and this didn't materialise until last night.

Quite a bit of audience participation tonight, the band were well up for it, Charlie, I think, was surprised at how well received the band were, every time he said "Jump", they did, "Come on, Lets fucking have it", Christ it was immense, I totally loved it.

It's seriously amazing how good this band are, I can't believe how good they were together on stage, you can't believe they've been away for a few years, they gelled perfectly, it was totally EPIC, I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

The only thing about last night that I regret, was not taking any cash with me. The merchandise stand was full of little gems, especially signed albums, gutted.com. One of those would've looked amazing framed on my office wall!

I hope Fightstar don't go away for too long in all honesty, and that this gig wasn't a swan-song. Tonight was too good for them not to come back with another album and tour, fingers crossed.

article by: Michelle Owen-Williams

photos by: Michelle Owen-Williams

published: 24/02/2015 19:01



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