The Subways at The Academy on April 28th 2012
Review: David Dooley
Photos: Alessio Michelini
Numerous jumps off the kick drum, a stage flanked by police sirens, more sing-along choruses than you can shake a setlist at and one of the finest songs written about a mum (Mary). When The Subways rolled into The Academy on a sunny April evening they came with no intention of rewriting the musical rulebook. Instead they took every rock and roll trick out of said book and crammed it into one of the most carefree, enjoyable gigs this reviewer has attended.
It’s energetic pop-rock that embraces its own simplicity. In an age of laptops and keyboards littering stages it’s very refreshing to see it all taken back to basics. The band are already very lean, with just three band members and a total of three instruments – the unofficial minimum criteria for playing a rock show (unless of course you’re The White Stripes or Death From Above 1979).
After three albums you could imagine the band losing their youthful energy but, thankfully for The Subways, this is not the case. Unlike a lot of other bands they don’t wait for the crowd to feed the energy to them when they play live; instead they go at it full throttle and leave the audience playing catch up. It also helps when your opening song is as strong as The Subways 2005 breakthrough hit, Oh Yeah.
In between jumping off the drum kit and playing up the crowd, guitarist Billy Lunn and bassist Charlotte Cooper bounce from one side of the stage to the other and back again, making full use of their wireless instruments. By the time they reach We Don’t Need Money to Have a Good Time the crowd have finally caught up and have shifted from casual swaying into all out moshing.
Attending the gig without knowing any songs from their latest album ‘Money and Celebrity’ doesn’t matter in the slightest. All you need to hear from the new songs was the first chorus and it would already feel like an old favourite. If their albums start to all sound alike in this way it may impede their future success but, in a live scenario where the key objective is to have a good time, it works a treat. The best example of said instant catchiness is Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which we suspect (and hope) is about the 2005 Robert Downey Jr. film of the same name.
When we get to Rock & Roll Queen, singer Billy Lunn seems genuinely taken aback when the entire venue takes over singing duties without any prompt from the frontman. This however comes in a close second place for highlight of the night. Top place goes to Lunn’s spectacular crowd dive from The Academy’s first floor onto the eager crowd below. Of course anyone who is following GoldenPlec on Facebook would be well aware of this as we had a picture of said jump online moments after he landed safely. As if that wasn’t enough, it all took place in the middle of closing song It’s a Party with Charlotte and drummer Josh Morgan not missing a beat and Lunn making it back on stage to finish the song.
The Subways Photo Gallery
Photos: Alessio Michelini
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