Review By: Craig McDonnell
Photos By: Christopher O’Reilly
Irish pop-punkers Jody Has a Hitlist played another Academy headliner on 16th April. This time, the occasion was the launch of their mini album, entitled ‘Choose Your Battles’. Support this time came from the brilliant Not Advised from Southampton aswell as Irish bands Hogan and Key of Atlas.
As the crowd begin to fill The Academy on this glorious sunny Saturday, Key of Atlas kicked everything off. This Belfast four-piece play that style of music that seems to be the genre du jour these days, indie music with catchy singalong choruses made popular by the likes of Two Door Cinema Club and Delorentos. They certainly did a good job and warmed up the crowd nicely for the upcoming bands.
Next up was Hogan, who were leaning more towards pop than any other band on the day. What stood out most for me for this band was their polished stage presence. Before almost every song, the flamboyant lead singer, clad in a t-shirt with the bands logo (a green H) as well as green makeup across his face (Green Lantern reference duly noted) would explain to the crowd how to sing the chorus of the following song, get them to practice it and then to sing it back to him during the song. Textbook crowd-pleasing. If things go well for this band, you could be hearing a lot more about them.
Main support came in the shape of UK pop-punkers Not Advised. In my opinion it is only a matter of time before they properly explode in the mainstream. Their myspace boasts positive review from Kerrang, Rock Sound and Big Cheese to name just a few so maybe that call is a bit of a late pass. In spite of them playing main support at this gig, it seemed the crowd were just as excited to see these play as they were to see Jody Has a Hitlist. The healthy crowd was raring to go as they entered on stage to the brilliant classical piece ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’ by Edvard Grieg (you have definitely heard it before, YouTube it!) Every song was performed with amazing energy by the band which was absorbed by the crowd and led to an amazing atmosphere.
The last time headliners Jody Has a Hitlist played this venue, a myriad of techinical problems, including a broken guitar causing a ridiculously long gap mid-set ruined an otherwise solid performance.
This time, however there was no such problems and the 5-piece pop punkers put in an amazing performance. As I mentioned in the opening gambit, they have now released their mini-album, ‘Choose Your Battles’. As a result, only songs from this as well as their first EP were played which meant no more cover of ‘Tik Tok’ by Ke$ha which, without being too harsh, can only be a positive thing. The only cover in the set was actually a song originally written by the bands front man in his previous life as frontman of Steer Clear. ‘Comebacks Aren’t Your Thing’ is a song I have heard live many times from when I used to be a teeny bopper and all age gigs so it was quite nostalgic to hear it again! Finishing with ‘Nobody’s Looking at You‘, Jody Has a Hitlist continued on the rest of their 20 date UK and Ireland tour.
Jody Has a Hitlist’s new mini album ‘Choose Your Battles’ is streaming online on their facebook and is also available on iTunes and Amazon.
