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Rating:

Forget Night of the Watchman. This was night of the showmen.

The night started with support from Polar Bear Club, which helped to set the mood for what was to be a very loud and energetic show at the LCR. Polar Bear Club really got the crowd going with great, enthusiastic music and lots of talking to the crowd by the lead singer. But they soon parted ways to make room for the legend that is, Tom Morello, guitarist of Rage Against the machine. Tom graced the stage with charisma that oozed from his mini speeches supporting equality and justice in the world, whilst he even went so far as to thank the crowd for support in getting Killing in the Name to the christmas top spot. His music wasn't the best, but he sure made up for this by displaying some of the amazing guitar tricks that have helped to make him such an influential guitarist. His standout song being 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' which finished with a guitar solo so awe-inspiring, the woman in front of me questioned; 'was that real?'

And so, the crowd were fuelled for Rise Against, who greeted the crowd by running on to the stage amongst the torrent of blazing guitars and cymbals that refused to stop all night. They managed to keep the fast paced tempo of the night as they powered through their greatest hits such as 'Prayer of the Refugee', whilst also playing newer songs like 'Make it stop (September's children)' which kept the mosh pit spinning for a good hour and a half. The band eventually settled in order for front-man Tim to play favourites such as 'Swing life away' and 'Hero of War', in which every lyric was sung back to him by the enthusiastic crowd. However this didn't last long, as Rise Against finished with the heavy hits of 'Saviour' and 'Give it all', which topped off a gig to remember, and even if there was a chance you'd forget, you would then soon remember it again the next morning due to the ringing in your ears.

The only criticism of the night would be that the vocals were sometimes not strong enough to compete with the backing instruments, and so this made it hard to distinguish the songs from one another. However the singers all made up for this by protesting against governments, consumerism and inequality, which showed that this was a gig of angry statement against a corrupt world in the form of loud rock music as a protest. All in all it was a very LOUD, but also very good gig.