Kids In Glass Houses - HMV Forum, London - 4th October 2011 (Live Review)
Friday, 14 October 2011
Written by Matthew Williamson
There have been people waiting outside the doors of the HMV Forum since midday waiting to be let in so they can get to the barrier for tonight’s headliners, Kids in Glass Houses. They’re all draped out in florescent colours and UV paint, at the band's request and, mostly, teenage girls, as Kids In Glass Houses brand of pop-punk/pop-rock so often caters to nowadays.
When we get into the venue the first band up are Blitz Kids, who postponed their own headline tour to be on the shows. Sticking them on 15 minutes after door wasn’t too kind on the band, who are playing to a fairly empty hall, although it is filling up as we go along. The half an hour set doesn’t really stick in the mind though. It’s a good, solid set, and there may be people who pick up a CD at the merch table because of it, but they haven’t blown anybody away.
Next are fellow Welshies, Save Your Breath. The pop-punk band from Newport don’t have the best sound in the world but there’s some interaction with the crowd, and they do manage to achieve a couple of call and responses going with the crowd. A few grumbles about the quality of sound are heard after the set, but also a lot of good vibes. Save Your Breath have been friends with KIGH for years, and maybe that friendships benefitting them today with the support spot.
A lot of the crowd seem to be here for Francesqa, the evening’s main support, as much for Kids In Glass Houses. The set consists of a couple of new songs, sandwiching crowd favourites such as ‘Ghost’ and ‘Move Your Hands’, the latter getting a fairly big sing-a-long, especially for a support band. Francesqa seemed to explode onto the scene last summer and support tours like this aren’t going to hurt their cause at all.
The Kids in Glass Houses set is decked out in florescent tape, with “KIGH” written in huge letters on the backdrop, which also fluoresces under the black light. There’s a couple of rows of strobes positioned on stage as well, you can already tell that the lighting’s going to be interesting. The band kick off with title track from the new album, ‘Gold Blood’. They stick mostly to the material off their two newest albums, but as they burst into Give Me What I Want, and then continue on into Saturday, the two songs played from Smart Casual, it’s clear they get the best reception.
The ‘apocolyptic nightclub’ scene as Iain Mahanty, as one of the band’s guitarists called it, is in full flow by the time the band depart the stage for a while. They return, not too long later to keep the raptures of fans satisfied. There’s still one fairly obvious song missing from the setlist, and as the beginning of ‘Matters At All’ rings out the crowd go crazy, it’s obvious the show’s coming to an end and they want to make the most of everything. From the couple of thousand people squeezed within the walls of the Forum you’d be hard pressed to find anybody that’s disappointed.
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