Lights out
Sunday night headliners in the Rock Sound tent traditionally don’t fair too well in terms of crowd numbers and it seems that The Blackout are suffering a similar fate. The turn out is decent but there’s a lot of empty space as they go up against British Sea Power and the Australian Pink Floyd on the other stages.
The small numbers in the crowd don’t affect the performance and on stage The Blackout are explosive, vocalists Sean Smith and Gavin Butler never stop moving around and coax the crowd into a decent circle pit early on in proceedings. Much of the set is drawn from last years album ‘We are the Dynamite’ (such as ‘Beijing Cocktail’) and it’s good stuff; fast, loud and heavy but with good tunes and melodies. They bring a rare energy to this stage (although admittedly Sunday’s bands have been better) and are certainly a very visual band. Some of the interaction with the crowd is far from being politically correct but it’s amusingly done and all adds to the entertainment factor.
There doesn’t seem to be any filler in the set list and whilst some of the songs aren’t exactly mind blowing they are solid throughout. ‘Life & Death in Space’, ‘I’ve Got Better Things To Do Than Die’ and ‘It’s High Tide Baby’ all keep up the tempo and they even manage to get an impressive wall of death going, the security apparently having lost interest in trying to stop them. It all builds up to a full on set closer in the form of ‘I’m a Riot You’re a Fucking Riot’, which sees the crowd, who have been fantastic throughout, really go for it. Everyone’s had a good time and when Smith calls for the whole crowd to give a middle finger salute even one of the coppers at the back of the tent joins in! Good band, good fun and a solid performance that probably justifies their headline status.