Northlane at O2 Academy Islington (London)

Buying the tickets to the metalcore band Northlane felt strange as I only just discovered them about a year ago through my boyfriend (I do cherish his taste in music), which made it seem surreal that I’d already get to see them. I suppose I’m just so used to having to wait years until I can see the bands I’d love to catch live-I don’t go to as many concerts as I’d like to (to be fair I’d be totally happy with going to a gig every day)-often if a band finally decides to play nearby, I either lack the funds, or the time, but that’s the student life I suppose.

I always love ticking off another venue from my list (it’s a long list), so I was excited for the Australian band to play the O2 Academy in Islington. Granted, I had indeed been to the O2 in Islington before but not in the main venue, only the O2 Academy 2 in order to watch Speaking in Shadows (they were just starting out and the tickets were cheap so I thought I’d check them out). What I was probably most excited about was that Volumes were supporting Northlane-best package deal imaginable!

We missed most of Hellions sadly (I’m not familiar with their music but I’ll take any chance I can to get my gig fix), and what we did catch was unfortunately hard to decipher due to bad sound quality. We got to the venue in time for The Acacia Strain though. So I’m not a fan of them, but their performance was engaging and of a decent standard. However the singer Vincent Bennett seemed…odd? I’m not sure how to describe this but I got some strange vibes during their set. Maybe it was just because Vincent was doing this thing where he kept drinking water on stage just in order to spit it back out in the audience (it felt like this was happening every other minute), and he seemed slightly off in general. After that was when the magic began.

I wasn’t expecting much from Volumes even though I am definitely a fan of their stuff, and I can honestly say they delivered the best performance that night, it might even be one of my overall favourites. The band had so much positive energy ,it was dazzling-especially their track “Vahle” from their 2014 album ‘No Sleep’ really moved me-I got so emotional I was on the verge of tearing up. For some context, Vahle is a track Volumes wrote after their close friend James Vahle tragically died in a car accident. The song is beautifully sad and melodic, and I’m pretty sure anyone who has lost someone can relate. The other track they played which made me enormously happy (we’re talking ‘My favourite band is playing my favourite song live’ kind of happy) and also means a lot to me is ‘The Mixture’. It's a critique of the music industry, highlighting how it has gotten increasingly messed up. Overall I was entertained and engrossed throughout their entire performance, and especially enjoyed the sound which was way better than the others.

After Volumes, the wait for Northlane was way too long, which unfortunately made me slightly cranky and tired, which isn’t ideal when you’re trying to enjoy a gig. The atmosphere was solid, but there were a lot of fans acting like a bunch of kids (not to sound offensive but not in a good way). The lighting wasn’t exactly creative but that isn’t the most important thing of a performance in my opinion anyway. I’m reluctant in comparing the two but if I had to choose I would probably prefer Adrian Fitipaldes’ (former lead singer that left the band in 2014) voice to Marcus Bridge’s (new lead singer that joined the band following castings), but maybe I just prefer Northlane’s old albums with Adrian’s voice. Marcus’ voice on their latest album ‘Node’ sounds really good actually, and I was even fascinated by videos of his acoustic performances but his voice during the live gig was merely disappointing. Perhaps, the band needs a little longer to play in harmony with each other. In sum, looking back on Northlane’s performance, it seemed a bit…soft-don’t get me wrong, soft can be good and it was a good gig but everything just seemed a bit too clean in a way. However, everything else was good, maybe bordering on average but nonetheless good. They couldn’t have chosen a better support act than Volumes though-they were a perfect fit. I can’t emphasize enough how amazing Volumes were, they were probably objectively better than Northlane, but maybe I just had higher expectations for the latter.