The Beat Surrender

We took the 6.35 train from Bradford to Leeds in high hopes, looking forward to seeing Jimmy Eat World. We arrived in good time so decided to hit the pub for a little while. An hour or so passed when we decided we should get to Leeds University in time to see the support band of the night which was Sparkadia. An Australian 4-piece pop/rock band. When they came on stage there wasn’t much of a crowd response but as a few songs passed the crowd slowly got going.

They played for around 40 minutes which to us felt like quite some time longer. After their last song the crowd gave them a big round of applause, the lights came on and everybody was then just waiting for Jimmy Eat World. The suspense was starting to build as the crowd started to chant “Jimmy! Jimmy! Jimmy!” After about 10 minutes the lights suddenly dropped and everybody knew it was time.

As soon as they appeared on stage the crowd roared in excitement. They kicked off the gig with the first track, “Big Casino” from their latest album, “Chase This Light”. They had a fairly good melodic sound, vocals weren’t too loud although we thought they were a little when Sparkadia were playing, the guitars were at a reasonable volume and we had a pretty good view of the stage. Front man Jim Adkins was playing with a lot of energy, swaying around with his guitar and shaking his head whilst playing. Backing vocals from the other guitarist, Tom Linton worked well with Adkins’ voice, bringing in a nice harmonising sound.

They played an array of songs, including the famous “Salt, Sweat, Sugar”, also known as “Bleed American”, “Let It Happen”, “Firefight”, “Dizzy”, “Sweetness”, “Carry You” and a few more. I personally enjoyed “Blood, Sweat, Sugar” the most, the crowd seemed to thoroughly enjoy this one too as they all bounced around quite a bit.

The lighting throughout the whole show wasn’t particularly special, with just a few different coloured spot lights at the top of the stage and a few around the sides on the floor but our real focus was on the performance of the band which overall was going well so far. Adkins played with energy throughout although became rather sweaty halfway through as his hair became stuck to his forehead.

Throughout the gig the crowd cheered and applauded at the end of each song, there were a few pathetic mosh pits in places and the odd one or two crowd surfers but overall the crowd wasn’t too rowdy compared with gigs I’ve been to in the past. Another one of my favourite performances of the night was most definately “Sweetness” in which they played with enthusiastic energy and the vocals were spot on. After seeing them live I appreciate their sound a lot more than I used to, the atmosphere of it touched you and everyone around you, they really did put on a fantastic show

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