Music > Live Reviews

You Me At Six at @UEA, Norwich

16/06/15

I have to be perfectly honest and inform you dear reader that up until this evening I didn’t really know too much about You Me At Six. So why am I here? How did I find myself at a gig to see a band that I barely know? As this is something that doesn’t happen too much these days as I am far more selective with my time!

Well you see it all started (the interest) at the end of 2014 while I was looking for a video of Embrace’s Fireworks on Youtube as it was then that I stumbled across Fireworks by You Me At Six. I liked it lots (it remains a favourite track) and then downloaded a handful more carefully selected tracks, so here I am. Their sound is somewhere between Thirty Seconds To Mars and the Foo Fighters. I was a little concerned that they may be a band that would have an extremely young following with screaming teenagers everywhere. I was told that this wouldn’t be the case and my friend’s advice was proven to be correct, as there was a decent balance of age groups in the room this evening.

This evening is a warm up show for the Isle of Wight festival at which they will be wowing the masses. I am told by some of the followers this evening that it is a big deal having the Surrey based five piece come back to Norwich for a gig. With four studio albums now under their belt, this year they were nominated for the best British band award at tonight’s Kerrang awards; they won it four years ago. Although mid-set lead singer Josh Franceschi informs us that he would much prefer to be playing live every single time, rather than be at the awards drinking all of the free booze!  They kick off proceedings with the brilliant Room To Breathe. Despite being down on the door as only being due to play for an hour tonight, they actually  play for an hour and a half before departing to the final song Lived A Lie, with fifteen other songs already under their belt much to the delight of the packed LCR. For me the highlight was an excellent acoustic version of Always Attract.

Clearly You Me At Six are a thoroughly professional band, and based on the evidence of this evening’s rapturous crowd, they have a committed following and are loved by many. I don’t think I will be rushing out and downloading the entire back catalogue, but there will certainly be some more room in the collection for one or two more downloads.