Ash in Support.
It is never easy being a support act at any venue, even harder when the venue is one of the largest indoor arenas in the UK. As the support you are there to warm the crowd up before the main event, and usually are playing to a few die-hard fans at the front, and those not old enough to be at the bar.
Well to my surprise there were a few people at the bar, but not many, you could even buy a T-shirt without a crush, either everyone was still in the pub, or stuck in traffic. To my surprise when I entered the arena everybody was there ready to hear the support act, they were not to be let down.
Ash stormed through a set that lasted roughly an hour, with a mixture of hits off this year’s album ‘Meltdown’, and off previous albums. This was good old-fashioned rock music, as it should be, live, raw and brilliant. This is one four-piece band that are still young, but seem to have been around forever. Tim Wheeler noted that the last time he had been at The MEN Arena was to watch AC/DC, he never dreamt he would be playing there. This gig proved that they have what it takes to play in a massive indoor arena, and dreams can come true.
There were powerful guitar and vocals from both Tim and Charlotte Hatherley (rock’s best looking guitarist in my opinion), as they romped through the songs. “Meltdown, Girl From Mars and Burn Baby Burn” through to the new single “Renegade Cavalcade” were lapped up by the massive crowd. Songs that the crowd loved were thrown into the mix as the audience danced, screamed and just plain moshed. Favourite songs appeared such as “Orpheus, Kung Fu and Starcrossed”. The band taking their lead from the heavy drumming of Rick McMurry, and one hell of an excited bassist in Mark Hamilton.
For a support act this was one hell of a bloody warm up, worth the admission fee alone. Admittedly I cannot wait till they are out touring as the headline themselves again, but this was a happy smoking frenzy of Ash.