Live Review: You Me At Six - UEA, Norwich
10th February 2024
Support: Call Me Amour, Deaf Havana
Words & Photos: Tom Atkin
Saturday night fun at the Norwich UEA with a massive out pouring of elder emos. (no offence meant, I am one of you too!)
Call Me Amour are tonights first band to hit the stage. An amazing mix of dark electronica with very much rock inspired guitars. They feel like an old school new band, with one of the touring crew handing out leaflets and stickers as we come in through the door. I wasn’t sure what to expect from these guys as I had not heard of them before; my usual pre gig listening was cut short due to being rushed. However, listening to them on the way home, they would have out done all expectations.
From the word go they brought an absolutely amazing atmosphere into the room. For a band that only released their debut EP in November last year they have their performance absolutely nailed, vocalist Harry Radford really does command the attention that the band deserves. Impeccable crowd interaction with him jumping into the masses with a portable search light and propping up on the Accessible Viewing Area.
Their EP is available now on Spotify and Apple Music. Along with performing their only headline show of 2024 at London Underworld on the 28th of September.
Next up we have the somewhat local lads, traveling all the way from Kings Lynn, the mighty Deaf Havana, an alternative rock band that have been doing the rounds since mid 00’s.
As someone who hasn't been a massive fan of the band, I approached their performance with open ears, and I must admit, I was pleasantly surprised. The show was a testament to the beauty of live performance, with James Veck-Gilodi's voice proving to be absolutely stunning. It became evident why Deaf Havana has gathered such widespread appeal over the years.
The fact that they are local and still play local is a massive thing, majority of the crowd is singing along to every song. With seven albums under their belt they have a large selection of songs to pick from. Tonight seems to be all the fan favourite’s, that brought up a lot of nostalgic feelings. At the end of the set I felt pleased that I had given them a chance. Whilst genre wise they are not my cup of tea, the performance on a whole was extremely enjoyable.
And on to tonight’s finale, Surrey Pop-punk/ post-hardcore / whatever other genre you want to put them in, the power house You Me At Six.
Firstly I would like to give them a massive shout out, performing a huge twenty one song set list. Then heading to one of the local venues to do a takeover set at a club night. Unfortunately I was not able to attend, but I have heard it was a bloody good night!
So the concert itself; this is another sold out show for the UEA and theres such a varied age range in here, along with different walks of life. People that I didn’t even realise were old enough to know who You Me At Six are here along with the some what older generation. Fans that looked like straight pure metal heads to people that you would imagine would be at an Ed Sheeran show. It just goes to prove how, across their eight albums, they have managed to hit the hearts of many people.
It is a massive set tonight going back across every album they have ever released, thus there is something for every fan in here. Starting with 'Room to Breathe' and 'Fresh Start Fever', from 2014’s 'Cavalier Youth', really sets the tone for the evening. Which continues through out, 'Kiss and Tell', 'Lived A Lie' and 'Mixed Emotions' all blasted out with just as much feeling as when they were first on the scene.
As usual I will be putting the full set list below as quite frankly there is too much to talk about. However, some highlights include the acoustic renditions of 'Be Who You Are' and 'Stay With Me' which were absolutely beautiful. 'Stay With Me' as an acoustic song live works so much better than the recorded / released version, which was probably helped along by the chorus of fans singing along.
Weirdly, the set was not picked around their latest album, instead opting to play their more classic songs, more of a throwback set than anything else.
This tour unfortunately signals the beginning of the end for You Me At Six, however according to Josh Franceschi they will be heading back our way very soon, which from looking at their website, is hinting at a much larger farewell tour.
As with most bands these days, they closed the night out with their classic fan favourites, 'Deep Cuts', 'UnderDog' and 'Beautiful Way'. 'UnderDog' was the moment of the night for me, the song that got me into these guys when I was younger. It is nice to see that they have developed into the band they are today and whilst it is a shame they are breaking up, I think its great that they are going out the way they would like to!
Photo Credit: Tom Atkin
