Between You & Me's lively performance celebrates independence and genre evolution.
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A trio of rising pop-punk stars arrived in Southampton on Thursday (February 22nd) as part of Aussie 5-piece Between You & Me’s UK tour. Joined by US bands Broadside and Young Culture, they provided an exciting riff-laden night.
Opening the show was Young Culture, setting the tone for an evening of high-energy performances. Straight from New York, they provided a decent set of catchy if not slightly generic skate-park anthems.
It’s clear that many of the crowd were fans of Virginia’s Broadside, at times making it feel like their own headline show, but that is a testament to their clear star quality. Frontman Ollie Baxter is a natural emo showman, a sort of stylistic cross between Black Veil Brides’ Andy Black and the vocal style of The Used frontman Bert McCracken. The band commanded the raucous crowd through a mix of their earlier music “for the pop-punk kids”, and more recent ventures into surprising combinations of what I can only describe as funk-punk in.
In contrast to Broadside’s heavier sounds and all-black fashion, Between You & Me very much represent the more positive side of the genre. The band effortlessly transitioned between their upbeat anthems such as recent single ‘YEAH!’ and more introspective but still rocking tracks like ‘Supervillain’, creating a dynamic flow that still kept the audience bouncing from start to finish.
Fresh from their recent appearance on Australian radio station Triple J, their ‘Like a Version’ cover of Smash Mouth’s ‘All Star’ was also a pleasant surprise. Adding their own slight pop-punk edge to the late 90’s classic, hopefully it will be a mainstay of shows to come.
Largely ignoring their early music save for ‘Dakota’ and ‘Overthinking’, tonight felt like a real celebration of the band’s recent independence after splitting from Hopeless Records. The set highlighted tracks from their bold and corporately undervalued second album ‘Armageddon’, as well as more recent singles such as ‘Nevermind’ and ‘In the Middle’ (released just the day prior) from their upcoming EP ‘SHIT YEAH!’
The incorporation of breezier, Britpop-esque elements in their recent singles added a sense of versatility to their set, revealing a band unafraid to evolve and push boundaries – particularly in a genre dominated by fans complaining when a band’s brand of pop-punk dares to stray away from sounding like Blink-182 or The Story So Far.
The chemistry among the band members was palpable, with their beamingly visible joy throughout clearly connecting with the audience, with constant crowd surfers and mosh pits appearing and spurred on by the Aussie lads. A particular highlight of this was guitarist Jai Gibon entering the crowd to face a wall of death wrath during closer ‘Butterflies’.
Between You & Me’s tour continues this week, tickets for the remaining shows can be purchased here. Check out the video for latest single ‘In the Middle’ here:
