Tonight Alive @ Warehouse 34, Newcastle

“To live a single day in the fear of someone else’s judgement is a wasted day!” – Jenna McDougall. 

As you can see, I got really close

So last night I went to one of the most unique and awesome experiences to date. Yes, I like my heavy music, but you can’t beat a bit of Pop-Punk every now and again am I right?! I’ve absolutely adored Tonight Alive (@TonightAlive) since the moment I first heard them, and I’ve had a massive crush on Jenna McDougall (@jenalive11) too, fuck that woman is too beautiful.

I’m gonna get the first part off my chest, I was late to the gig and missed the first support act Mister Nothing, although I did check out their band camp and they sounded pretty good actually, sorry dudes. As for the second band, Moose Blood I think they were called, fucking hell… Yes lads, it was the end of your tour, you’re tired, everyones tired. But c’mon put some bloody effort in man. I’ve taken dumps that put on a better performance than you did last night. The lead singer was awkward and mumbly and barely spoke to the crowd at all. I was actually kinda glad your set was only like 20 mins. One positive though their drummer was awesome. Nice work bro.

But don’t panic, this piece isn’t totally negative, far from it in fact.

First of all, the venue was killer! The place was called Warehouse 34. On the website where I bought my tickets it said ‘nightclub/venue’ so I expected not to be much different from places like the O2 Academy. Oh was I surprised. The place was literally a warehouse, in the middle of an industrial estate, with no interior design as such, just a make shift bar with a few kegs and bottled spirits. A sound booth, that you could fit in your garden shed. A flatpack table from Ikea with the merch on it. An a stage at the back, the light rig was decent though, lots of pretty colours. Yes, it was a bit of a shithole, but it felt so awesome! I got that underground rock n’ roll vibe that you see in documentaries from the 70’s, it was killer! It was real easy to get to the front too, I was inches away from Jenna for the entire set. We got eye contact so many times, I drooled lots. we even held hands, never washing it again.

Let’s segway away from my fantasies and talk about the set shall we…

Really Fucking Close

Tonight Alive in short fucking killed it. Opening with ‘The Edge’, you know the only good thing that came from that god awful Spider-Man movie (bring the hate bitches). Jenna’s live vocals are off the fucking chart. I saw them at Slam Dunk Fest 13′, but the room was packed and I didn’t get the best spot, but even then I enjoyed them. This time though MY GOD SHE’S GOOD. Honestly I saw Paramore at Leeds Festival 12′ and thought that Hayley’s vocals were shocking. Given that they’ve recently co-headlined Reading + Leeds last year, give it a few years and a couple more studio albums, Tonight Alive are gonna be fucking huge in a few years time, trust me.

Other pop-punk bangers in the setlist were: ‘ Listening’, ‘Wasting Away’ ‘Hell and Back’ and ‘The Ocean’. Seriously guys what is it with Aussie bands and the nautical themes, Parkway do it too! Don’t care love it. They even slowed down the mood by playing us a little love song called ‘The Other Side’ (awww). The setlist was almost perfect to be honest. They closed with ‘Lonely Girl’, and I fucking love the drum intro to that track, I air drum it EVERYTIME, no shame. Although they did miss out two of my favourites: ‘Breaking and Entering’ and ‘Thankyou and Goodnight’. I would’ve expected them to play them in an encore, but we didn’t get one. Something about driving to Paris right after the show or something. *sadface*

I really love this shot

I think being in such a small venue, with such a genuinely nice group of musicians like Tonight Alive was fucking incredible. They were so down to earth and cool, they cared about their fans, and didn’t care that this wasn’t the biggest show they’d ever played. They gave it everything. I really hope to see Tonight Alive on this years Reading + Leeds lineup, maybe even Download, they deserve it. Hope to see you guys again soon!

Well that’s my thoughts on Tonight Alive, don’t forget to follow MoshNet on Twitter (@MoshNetBlog) and you might as well follow me (@MosherLuke) while you’re there.

Thanks for reading as always you guys rock!

Also I’ve just made a  YouTube channel for MoshNet, It’s brand new and not at all polished but you can find it HERE check out the videos I shot from Tonight Alive. It’s mainly so I can upload and embed videos I take from gigs into these posts, although I might try my hand at some vlogging. What do you think? Drop us a Tweet to have your say!

Luke (@MosherLuke)