To celebrate ten years since the release of their debut album Take Off Your Colours, You Me At Six announced a special tour to play the album to its entirety. They announced two dates for each city: one which was a regular tour with songs from all albums and the other was Take Off Your Colours plus an encore of their big hits. This was night number two at the Barrowland Ballroom, the night of the album anniversary setlist.
This album was the first rock CD I had ever received and it was for my thirteenth birthday. When I saw that You Me At Six announced this tour, I was flooded with nostalgia and bought tickets straight away without even checking if I could afford them. Seven years later, you’d think I would’ve grown out of my emo phase, even I thought I had, until hearing this album in full and it brought all of that energy back from the good days.
Unfortunately due to the bad weather and traffic issues, I arrived late to the venue and completely missed The Xcerts set which I was gutted about as I have seen them before and I know how good they are live. It was a bit of a bummer that I didn’t hear any of their new album live.
Filling the room with electricity, Marmozets took to the stage. Truthfully, I have never listened to their music before and I was suprised with how heavy their music was – I didn’t expect that. Becca Macintyre, lead vocalist, had a very gritty voice which captured the hardcore punk essence of the band as a whole. Their set felt very short but it was a lot of fun to watch, the band had so much energy and were determined to get the crowd going. Their drummer was especially good at this, he kept jumping up on his stool, dancing and waving his hands in the air to get the crowd going. They closed their set with “Major System Error” which was a good note to end on as it was very fastpaced and got the crowd warmed up for You Me At Six.
The lights went out and the stage brightened up with flashing blue lights and a light techno beat was playing. The crowd began to cheer as You Me at Six came on one by one and got straight into upbeat guitar riff of “The Truth is a Terrible Thing”, the first song off their debut album. Everyone screamed the lyrics so loud that Josh schi let us take over for the first few lines of the song. I felt like I was thirteen again and I was singing along in my bedroom. It only took me seven years to finally see them live and I definitely picked the right time to see them. Next up was their second single “Gossip” which is one of my favourites from the album. I still knew all the words after thinking I grew out of them and it was just a phase, apparently not, perhaps I’ll forever love You Me At Six no matter how hard I try to repress it.
schi was extremely overwhelmed by the response that the tour had received as they “Made this record when they were kids,” and were signed to Slam Dunk records. He announced that he wanted the crowd to give it their all and crowd surf for “Save It For The Bedroom” and the crowd erupted when the riff played. We screamed every lyric from start to finish, leaving the band in awe at how energetic we were – Glasgow crowds never disappoint, all bands love us! He began to whisper “Here we, here we…” into his mic to get us going into our traditional “Here we fucking go!” chant.
When they played their first single “If I Were In Your Shoes” the crowd didn’t stop going from start to finish, yet again screaming every word, taking over from Josh and giving him a break. He began to thank the crowd and how the shows at the Barrowlands have been the best they have played. He gave an anecdote of the first time they played in Glasgow was when they were sixteen and seventeen. He then went on to thank their Scottish friends in Twin Atlantic and Biffy Clyro – Simon Neil called him before the tour to say that “The Barras will be the best show you’ll ever play and that’s a fact.” Resulting in the crowd cheering and chanting “Here we fucking go!” in unison.
The mood slowed down for “Always Attract” as Josh came out on his own with Chris Miller, lead guitarist, who was playing the acoustic guitar. He encouraged as many people to get up on other’s shoulders during this song and sing as loud as we can and we definitely didn’t let him down. This song always tugs on my heart strings as it’s such a beautiful love song, the lyrics are so sweet and I couldn’t help but get emotional during this performance.
They rounded up their Take Off Your Colours set with “The Rumour” and announced that they will be coming back to play a few more songs for us. They all left the stage for a quick minute interval where the lights flashed and the same techno beat played. They came back on refreshed and Fransceschi shouted “That was then. This. Is. Now.” They started playing songs from their new album VI, opening with “Fast Forward”. It was fun that they also played new songs as well as their old ones and their hits.
They rounded off their set with “Reckless” and their big hit “Underdog” to which the whole room erupted during the chorus and a big circle pit opened up at the end which was encouraged for the final chorus.
This was such a perfect gig to finish off November, full of energy and nostalgia, there’s definitely not much more you can ask for! I was in my element for the whole night and You Me At Six absolutely smashed it. They did their debut album absolute justice and it still remains one of my favourite albums to this day as it captures so many memories back then and more which were made tonight.
You Me At Six: official | facebook | twitter | youtube
Marmozets: official | facebook | twitter | instagram | youtube
