Tsk, Kids and metal
'His hair was lovely when he came on', said the fourteen-year-old girl in front of me in regard to singer Matt Tuck. This isn't perhaps what you expect to hear after a metal show, a Westlife concert maybe, but it summed up a large part of Bullet for my Valentine's audience and appeal. The sell out gig was ninety percent teenagers and for many, I would assume, it was their first metal experience. It was certainly a case of mums and dads at the back with the kids causing mayhem and many a mosh pit at the front. They appeared to the chant of 'Bullet, Bullet' over the album intro imaginatively titled 'Intro', before crashing headlong into 'Her Voice Resides' which caused the majority of the room to launch into a writhing frenzy.
The solid riffing of '4 Words (to choke upon)' came across well and their well worked middle breaks were even more effective with the volume up high coupled with the heart pounding bass drum. The constant thrashing kept the young crowd happy however their insular style of song-writing did get tiresome very quickly and if it wasn't for Matt announcing each song I wouldn't have been able to tell one song from another. There were doses of inexperience on display with the most obvious being the rapport with the audience. After every song the band went to the back of the stage and did their own thing causing the frenzy to die away somewhat. Matt's banter with the crowd was the generic 'Let's fucking tear this place down', 'Fuck, Manchester you mother fuckers rule', and 'I wanna fucking see some fucking mayhem' and so on. There weren't any witty comments, no clever lead up to songs and it all seemed a little forced at times, especially Matt's call for the ladies in the audience to cry out, which, was a little embarrassing. This side of their act will improve with time and regular gigging but I have to contest the amount of swearing used by the band. The over use of swearing not only gets boring and in-effective, but Bullet for my Valentine have to respect the fact that ninety percent of their audience are under eighteen. I can understand they want to stir the crowd up and create an atmosphere but I don't think it's something many parents want to subject their 10-year-old child to.
On the whole Bullet for my Valentine gave a solid display without doing anything particularly special. They're accomplished musicians but they have a long way to go to be the band they probably think they are, however, with their growing fan base and sold out shows they'll get many more chances to improve and eventually become a slick live act. The set finished with an excellent sounding rendition of 'The End' and the audience left with smiles on their faces. A scuffle of eight fans fought over a drumstick to which the guy next to me simply said, 'Tsk, kids and metal'. Bullet for my Valentine are a kids band and if they are a starting block for some of their fans to go on to other aspects of the metal world then they are doing the genre a great service. Next stop, the Smash Hits poll winner's party.