Modern rockers You Me at Six last performed in Aberdeen more than a decade ago. Since then they’ve played some of the biggest stages from Download, Reading, and T In The Park, to Isle of Wight, and Wembley.
They finally returned to the Granite City last night to perform at P&J Live, but recently announced that they’ll be splitting up.
With comedian Bill Bailey in residence in the arena next door, the gig was held in one of the venue’s other huge halls. All standing, purpose built with great acoustics, it was packed.
Supports warmed up the crowd with strong stage presence
Kicking off the night were up-and-comers Call Me Amour and they were terrific. US frontman Harry Radford charged the band through a set of dark electronica with distorted guitars as if they were the headliners.
A strong stage presence and audience interaction suggested we’ll be hearing more of them.
Sandwiched between the opener and headliners were Deaf Havana. The alt-rockers are no strangers to touring with You Me at Six and they delivered a set of their melancholic anthems.
The vocal melodies of brothers James, and Matty Veck-Gilodi had the whole room bellowing every word to set closer, Fever but it was an oddly workmanlike performance.
Pop punk veterans You Me At Six take the stage
You Me at Six took the stage at 9pm to a roar and opened with the slow burning Room To Breathe. Frontman Josh Franceschi once famously said rock music needs to take inspiration from genres like hip hop and RnB.
This didn’t go down well with traditional headbangers, but he had a point. And last night there was a glorious mash up of technology, with sound samples being triggered underneath the raw guitars of Max Helyer and Chris Miller.
If you melded the heaviest elements of The Killers with Artic Monkeys you’d hear something akin to the wall of sound that came off the stage last night. But as with so many successful rock bands, it’s the frontman who steals the show.
You Me At Six may be winding down, but Franceschi put in a real shift during the 90-minute set. Song after song he bounced around the brilliantly designed backlit stage, getting the young crowd pumped up.
Highlights and hits from the English rockers
There were plenty of singalong highlights, including the wonderful Take On The World (100m Spotify streams and counting) and the ear worm that is Cold Night. 20 years at this game has taught the band about light and shade too.
A pseudo acoustic section brought about some Backstreet Boys comparisons during Be Who You Are, before the crowd surfing started up for the home straight of the set with the likes of Fast Forward and Save It For The Bedroom, ringing out.
The band encored with the anthemic Beautiful Way that got the room jumping one last time, closing a show that had poignancy for fans.
As the audience filed out there was the inevitable sense that for those fans, You Me At Six’s split comes too soon.
But after two decades the pop-punk veterans have little to prove, and besides, it’s not goodbye just yet as they announced that they plan to return to Scotland one last time next year. If that happens, do not miss them.
Great stuff.
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