Bands: Massacre On Broadway, For Love And Hate, The Colour Line
Location: Shades Nightclub, Bridlington
Date: 14th January 2012
For the second time, Massacre On Broadway hit the seaside resort of East Yorkshire that is Bridlington. This time bringing with them female fronted post-hardcore quintet For Love And Hate and The Colour Line, who opened up the show. From where I was stood at the bar, it was near enough impossible to see The Colour Line – aside from the occasional glimpse of frontman Chris’ head – due to the vast gathering of people in front of the stage. They performed a strong sounding set and undoubtedly put on an energetic performance. There was a powerful hint of technical metal influences in their songs. The only issue I really had with TCL’s set was the use of clean vocals during in the first song as they sounded flat and strained.
For Love And Hate took everyone by surprise – including myself. The thought of a female fronted band generally makes people assume that they’ll be either a Nightwish or Paramore sounding band but that wasn’t the case with FL&H. The female dominated band performed a powerful, in your face mixture of songs with a masterful combination of post-hardcore screams (provided by frontwoman Mya) and clean vocals (provided by Jodie). There was a slight technical issue during in one of their songs (I believe it was “I’ve Met The Ocean”) but it was soon sorted out by the pint-sized sound technician. Massacre On Broadway finished the show, with half the crowd left. While their songs are brilliantly composed in terms of the music and have potential to go far, the vocals sounded in dire need of being tweaked. The band lacked stage presence and they didn’t seem to keep the crowd that entertained. In all honesty, they were as bland as they were the last time they played in Bridlington.
In the immortal words of Meatloaf, “two out of three ain’t bad” and that was the case with this show though The Colour Line or For Love And Hate should really have been the ones headlining the show – And in terms of the mini-tour, FL&H should be headlining that as well. Hopefully, MOB will work on their stage presence for the next time they hit Bridlington.
Nico Davidson
Valkyrian Music 