Review
AWAKE THE EMPIRE
PLUS: The Perfect Crime, As We Climb, Chasing Outlaws and Contours
The Junction, Cambridge
7th October 2011
Words: Caroline Pawson Photos: Emma Bowdidge onight Awake The Empire bring 4 other bands including a few local favourites along with them to celebrate the release of their new EP at the infamous Junction in Cambridge.
The first band of the night were Contours. They got straight down to business, going into the first song of the night. Interacting with the crowd as much as possible. They gave a lively performance and put a lot of energy into their set.
Next up were Chasing Outlaws. I had been wanting to see these live for a while, and although they gave a good show musically, I thought that they could have been a bit more visual. But none the less, their performance was all round a good one.
Chasing Outlaws
Cambridgeshire’s very own pop-punkers As We Climb were next on the bill. These are always a joy to see live. They have got such energy and enthusiasm while they are on stage it’s great to watch. They played songs from their debut EP ‘Let It Show’. I would definately recommend going to see these guys when they drop by a town near you soon.
As We Climb
The last of the supports were another local act The Perfect Crime. I had also been wanting to see these live for a while. Personally I didn’t think much of their performance. They didn’t seem to put much effort into it. The quality of their music was good though.
The Perfect Crime
Lastly, the band in which we had all been anticipating to see, Awake the Empire. On the backdrop, a video came up of live footage of the band, clips of which were from when they last played at the Junction on the 16th July ’11. The band came out, took their places on stage and went straight into their set. I got the impression from them that they weren’t up for playing tonight, and seemed as if they couldn’t wait to get off stage, even lead vocalist Chris had said they were close to pulling out of the gig due to some mistake of his (I’m guessing something to do with hurting his wrist as he couldn’t play guitar much). They still put in quite a bit of effort and energy into their set though. Due to Chris not being able to play guitar he mentioned they couldn’t play new songs for us so threw a couple of covers into the show including a cover of ‘The Kill’ by 30 Seconds To Mars which went down well with the crowd who were singing lyrics back and moshing. They finished on opening track of their debut EP ‘Crash’. The crowd were shouting out for ‘One more tune’, after a minute the band came back on stage and played ‘Closer’ and ‘Six O’. During the encore Chris, jumped down to the barriers and leaned over into the crowd while thrashing out the lyrics. After thanking the crowd for coming out tonight, the band left the stage for the final time.
Awake The Empire
