Sing it Loud w/Cobra Starship [Live] @ ULU, London

29th May 2009

June 4, 2009, 02:09 AM

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I wasn't entirely sure what I was expecting when I turned up at ULU to see Sing it Loud supporting Cobra Starship. Yes, I had been expecting a fair few amount of kiddies, but when me and my twenty-something friend arrived the vibe decidedly felt more like we were at some childrens organised disco. Our preconceptions were further cemented by the fact that when we went to the bar the staff informed us they weren't even serving alcohol tonight as their were too many underage kids. Shock horror. I honestly felt like like turning straight back around and getting the hell out of there and into somewhere more suitable for a grown up Friday night. But.... we stayed.

Sing it Loud burst on stage (and not a minute too soon for me and my thirsty friend) in a disorganised array of excitement, 'yoof' and pre-teen spirit (haha), and begun their unsurprising seven song set of songs solely from their newly released debut album 'Come Around', bar one ("Bite Your Lip").

Admittedly, they do look rather odd on stage and completely like they don't belong in the same band, and this was further high lighted by how un-unified they were performing together. Don't get me wrong, they were in tune, everything was in time and they actually sounded pretty good live, but it definitely felt as if each individual member was on their own agenda.

They impressively worked the already excitable crowd up and actually I had to admit I was enjoying myself watching this incredibly fun set, set high lights were “Come Around”, “Best Beating Heart” and “No One Can Touch Us”, where instead of featuring Alex Gaskarth on vocals they had some random bouncy emo girl singing.

All in all, a good set. It wasn't perfect, I'd even say slightly hap hazard in the way all individual members were fighting each other for the spotlight (I swear front man Pat Brown was close to knocking over zealous bassist Nate Flynn out a couple of times from thunder hogging), but at least they all looked like they were having fun and grateful to be here.

In direct contrast to the enjoyable set of Sing it Loud, was Cobra Starships' AWFUL set. Jeeez Louise. I actually didn't want to stay as I had no interest in seeing this band but my friend wanted to check their set out. Possibly in my top five most boring sets ever. It wouldn't be so bad if they actually bothered singing songs, but instead of singing at a gig, they favoured half hour talking intros to the occasional song, despite apparently having three albums worth of songs to choose from (so it wasn't a case of not having enough material). When they did the odd song it was just completely non descript r'n'b shit boy band CRAP and even though I was wearing flats I was getting to the point where my feet were aching 'cause I was so bored and I barely had the will to stand.

The most annoying part of this set was when they came back for the encore (yes, I was made to stay till then too, thanks "friend") the stupid shaggy haired band member (Guitarist? Bassist? Who cares) decided to come on stage on his own first and give a completely unfunny stand up comedy routine, like, as if he was Keith Murray or something? He wasn't even the singer. I'd advise you to not see them ever, all their songs are shit but their chat and 'stand up comedy' is unbelievably shitter and of much higher frequency. It actually felt like an endurance test of mental boredom. Awful awful awful.

But Sing it Loud were heaps better (and my scores are for Sing it Loud only, CS would get nothing out of 100!!).

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