The Headstart
Tonight was probably not the best night to play a show in Newcastle, with Shinedown playing just down the road, The Headstart plus their mighty entourage of support bands surely have their work cut out. With four hours of support bands to endure, none of whom introduce themselves properly (instead I must work my way around the venue to find stage times with each band listed) before the headliners come on themselves.
It's a tough start for first of many supports The Creep Void who try. Their lead vocalist looks like he belongs on a surf board in Australia whilst the other three just kind of stand there. The guitarist never lifts his head and the bassist doesn't even move. It's a bit of a let down really.
Next up, Queen Anne's Revenge, who supported local lads My Extraordinary. With their usual act of swapping instruments amongst one another they whip out a rather good cover of The Beatles before a few originals including their insanely moody and aggressive vocalist who just glares at every other member as if they were his kids. They spin off a couple of originals before taking a five minute break to decide what to play next and deciding on Foo Fighters - Learn To Fly. It's not a bad cover...until the singing starts and then everything get's messed up; the timing is off, I'm sure it's not in tune and to replicate Dave Grohl's vocals well in the first place is hard enough as it is but there just isn't any force. There's just nothing and their set ends rather disappointedly.
The third of six supports is local band Cohesion, whose name took me forever to find out, who had a lot of potential. The big issue with all of these supports comes their inability to name their tracks- which gets really awkward when this band bring forth an original track that deserves radio play and would work well on the introducing stages at any festival. They've certainly got the right stage atmosphere and enough crowd participation to keep the few people milling around to stay put through their set.
Next up, Pointless View, who really look like they don't belong in the scene, but they rock out a wonderful cover of The Prodigy's Omen as well as a lot of their own originals. There's little crowd participation and I'm sure that the lead vocals/synth player is going to split his head open if he's not careful. All accidents are avoided however and their set just flies over. They don't exactly present anything memorable..which unfortunately seems to stand for a lot of the bands on the stage tonight.
The last of the support bands, Dixon Did It, are the only one of six that seem to have done something worthwhile. There's a hefty amount of people that turn up for their set and they've got a lot of stage presence. With guitar faces that would scare even the hairiest of men however, they also have the inability to interact with he crowd until the very end where an amp is knocked over in 'rockstar' fashion and introductions of each member are made. Then with a very wise and clever interpretation of the hit 1974 classic Jolene end their set and leave the stage ready to make way for tonight's headliners.
The Headstart are a band that have a lot of potential heading their way. Starting with Set The Ground On Fire, the tiny crowd that are left even if a few of them are a little bit too drunk, truly get into the music. Front man and bassist Shimmy gets himself really involved with the show and eventually everyone's jumping about. A nice dedication to a fan who admits They put People Like You on TV is her favourite, brings The Headstart into their prime. After nailing support slots with massive bands like Framing Hanley, from this performance it's easy to see why. Guitarists Luke and Gaz throw themselves around the stage truly getting involved with the show and it's the first kind of energy that we've seen all night. Breaking out a new song before storming through the old ones in true The Headstart fashion gets everyone bouncing on their feet. A make shift mosh pit is opened where two very eager and obviously dedicated fans run around in circles for a bit, having even the band in fits of laughter. Last but not least is big hitter Trying To Write An Anthem, which includes crew members running around on stage with cans of silly string squirting it into the crowd. A hyper filled, fun show that seemed more like a get together of friends rather than a band playing a headline show to fans.