11

People Like People Like People Like Us

The Myspace/Gibson tent has been busier today but not by much and there's standing room only for Sweden's Backyard Babies. Formed 17 years ago they've always been on the fringe of greatness but have never quite made the breakthrough. With a string of well received albums behind them they appear at Download this year on the back of recent offering 'People Like People Like People Like Us'.

They waste no time in getting into their stride today, Backyard Babies play straight up rock and roll but they do it fast with great choruses and a real swagger. Today it's lead guitarist Dregen who is the real star, he takes every opportunity to come front of stage and interact with the crowd. On record I've always felt the Backyard Babies lacked the killer edge but in the live environment it all comes together perfectly. After a day of mixed emo, out and out metal and God knows what, it's refreshing to get back to some good honest hard-edged rock and roll.

The band strut and swagger throughout and the crowd lap it up, it's 45 minutes of high octane stuff and that proves to be just the right length of set to leave everyone wanting more. Bass players are often overshadowed by the rest of the band but Johan Blomquist turns in a fine performance with some great bass runs. 'Star Wars' sees Dregen take lead vocals and gets the whole crowd clapping along and 'Making Enemies is Good' goes down a storm with its Wildhearts' stylings.

All in all a thoroughly enjoyable performance; the sound is good, the crowd are good and today at least, the Backyard Babies are great!