New Found Glory and Paramore

I recently interviewed Chad Gilbert and Cyrus Bolooki from New Found Glory before their show supporting Paramore at Leicester's De Montfort hall. They were both really nice blokes, very polite and friendly and told me quite a bit of interesting stuff about there upcoming releases and more. The interview should be appearing at www.bandidge.com some time soon and I'll also post it here in its entirety incase they take out any parts as it is quite long. The gig itself was pretty good with four bands appearing in total. The first act on stage were a band called Conditions who, despite having the usual curse of the unannounced support band, awful sound settings making it nearly impossible to make out the lyrics to their songs, were quite an impressive live act. Especially for a band yet to release their first EP. The quality of their music was good and their stage presence and entertainment value was even better. Anyone with an interest in up beat pop punk music should definitely keep an eye on this lot. They are on myspace if you want to find out more. Next up was Kids In Glass Houses, another punky act from Wales that have been pretty widely hyped in the British music press. But on this showing it's pretty tricky to understand why. The majority of their songs seemed quite dull and all sounded more or less the same. One guitarist posed and preened in an annoying manner remeniscent of Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz while the other three musicians were so anonymous that it was almost like they weren't there. The energy levels of the bands' singer Aled Phillips couldn't be faulted but his efforts to work the crowd definitely need work. Then, in my admitedly slightly biased opinion, the best act of the night New Found Glory. They proved again that they are one of, if not the best live punk band in the world. Singer Jordan's voice sounds as good live as it does on their albums and the rest of the band showed what good musicians they are even effortlessly switching instruments during songs and barely missing a beat. There was also a nice moment when NFG allowed some guy out of the crowd to come on stage and play drums for them. The crowd may not have been as loud or frenzied as a usual NFG crowd but it's likely that was because many of the kids in attendance were simply too young to be very familiar with the band. Headliners Paramore walked on stage to a loud, if noticeably high-pitched, hereos reception. Their set was the only one of the night to feature a video screen to accompany the songs and although the band were pretty good musically it felt like their showmanship was a little forced. On a plus note Hayley Williams vocals sounded much better live then I had expected, her voice really did have the same power and quality as the bands recordings. The highlight of the Paramore set was probably their cover of Jimmy Eat World's Sweetness although that to may have been lost on some of the younger members of the crowd. Paramore's performance wasn't bad but it did little to improve my opinion of them as a a band that are average to fairly good but that have been massively over hyped and marketed. Over all a pretty good show and a very enjoyable night. The band of the night were definitely NFG with Paramore and Conditions an equal second.