Tonight’s gig was the other end of the scale from last night. From an arena to KK’s Steel Mill in Wolverhampton to catch another band I had yet to see (quite ashamedly so as they have been around many years and Teenage Dirtbag was released in my final years of being a teenager).
As usual, the ever so versatile venue that is KK’s had had a bit of a shift around. The stage seemed bigger than the last time I was there and the room was already quite full when I arrived. I had just made it for the support act.
MC Frontalot brought his well-written, amusing Nerdcore HipHop to Wolverhampton. I had no idea what to expect having never even heard of him but I was certainly entertained. Even though the large stage was occupied by a single person the full space was utilized by the eccentric figure upon it.
Accompanied by a large screen to the rear with the song videos (and lyrics), it was a very compelling performance by someone who knew how to interact with the crowd. I honestly couldn’t tell you every song on the set my goodness it was fun to watch and listen to. So much so I was straight onto MC Frontalots Spotify adding him to my ever-growing list of new (to me) music. The songs I do remember were First World Problem, Critical Damage, and Power User. The final song was helped along by some members of Wheatus which brought a great set to a great finish
When Wheatus hit the stage the fans weren’t shy in letting them know they were happy they were here. It was a pleasant surprise when Brendan announced that it would be the crowd that decided upon the set list for the night, a great way to interact with the crowd and make them really feel a part of the show, and it made for some very amusing moments with the back and forth between the band and the fans. I really do think they are onto something here and a lot of bands should adopt this way of playing.
Even more surprising was that regardless of what songs were shouted out in this ad-hoc way the band sounded very well rehearsed, it didn’t seem like a beat was dropped or a mistake made (apart from a very amusing moment later in the night where a high five between Matthew (Bass) and KC (Drums) really amused Brendan, so much so that later in the song at the time he choked laughing.
They are fantastic musicians, and you can really see why they have the stage setup that they do, plenty of movement from Brendan and Matthew really putting on a spectacle and obviously enjoying what they do immensely.
And I do have to say that Brendans custom guitar is fantastic, and he is definitely a very underrated guitarist (in fact the whole band are underrated musicians, very fun to watch live). The last band that I saw with this kind of energy and the way they had fun up there was the Presidents of the United States of America (one of my all time favorite bands). In fact that would be part of a dream line up after tonight: Wheatus and PUSA sharing a stage.
There is plenty of banter, plenty of laughs, and plenty of dancing and singing in the crowd. Brendan at times teased us with little flurries of metal riffs and, as is usual for a lot of bands that visit the West Midlands, acknowledges the birthplace of Heavy Metal, even more so apt in a building owned by KK from Judas Priest.
The songs played tonight included Sunshine, Leroy, A Little Respect, The Song That I Wrote When You Dissed Me, BMX Bandits and of course, after a few others, the set ended with Teenage Dirtbag, and a fantastic rendition of it at that which included MC Frontalot dropping a few bars midway then the Wolves crowd doing their best at the breakdown vocals before the band took back the reigns and gave an absolutely HUGE finish.
A fun night was had by both the crowd and the band and I was happy I was there to be a part of it too.
The tour still has a huge number of dates to go as they travel the length and breadth of the UK until the end of November so get on their website and find a date near you, I may have to go see them again before they leave.
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