Chunk! No, Captain Chunk!

support Light You Up + Climates
author JWM date 13/09/13 venue The Cellar, Southampton, UK

I count four dozen. Four dozen people that have arrived at The Cellar tonight to witness the French easycore mad men Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! (C!NCC!) on not just their first tour here since 2011 supporting Miss May I, but also their first headline tour in the United Kingdom. It's been five months since their excellent second album "Pardon My French" was released and regardless of the large fan base they have acquired in the United States they have set themselves up a very modest basement tour here. Tonight The Cellar is buzzing with anticipation, an atmosphere of dance music and alternative kids excitedly bickering about what singles C!NCC! will open and close the set with. But that high desire to satisfy their apprehension is suppressed as the support acts now try to win over some fans.

Light You Up

It's not exactly uncommon for a pop punk band to have a near ridiculously friendly singer, but Birmingham new comers Light You Up''s Tom Napier exclaims to the crowd "come talk to us later; we want to be your new best friends!" Encouraging that those who don't know the words to their songs just make them up as they go along, is the kind of possitive energy I like to see in the kind of youthful band Light You Up is. Stylisically they were pretty damn pop punk that's for sure: That melody-driven punk with vocals as angsty as their lyrics kind of band. However, their style clearly didn't get the timid crowd moving, despite Napier coming down to the floor to sing in their faces and try to get them all involved. The band put on a good set but I couldn't help but notice a severe lack of enthusiasm from the crowd.

Setlist:

  • 1. Without You Here
  • 2. Broken Jaw
  • 3. It's About Time
  • 4. Brother
  • 5. All We've Ever Know
  • 6. Foxfire

Climates

Opening with the break-neck speed of "What Means The Most", Lincoln's Climates waste absolutely no time with profound introductions as they play through the song with relentless focus. Without even a break for air they go straight into "Chance & Courage". "Determination and perseverance, have brought me to this stage. The unknown future rolls toward us, and now we’ll write it as we go along". These very apt and optimistic lyrics highlight the importance of tours like this for Climates. The band respect that too, putting in a particuarly energetic performance jumping, screaming and really moving around the stage. Their style is as aggressive as you might anticipate, emotional and biting melodic hardcore that delievers the kind of honesty you'd expect of any of Deathwish.inc's roster. But if there's one thing you'd anticipate from a C!NCC! fan base it is that they like breakdowns; and a band like Climates who go out of their way to not include them in their style doesn't exacly make such a crowd bounce. But as the set closes a sense of serenity is created as the chiming introduction of finale "Letting Go" gives vocalist Wes Thompson a real opportunity to thank every one for listening only to throw himself into the band's wall of sound.

6

Setlist:

  • 1. What Means The Most
  • 2. Chance & Courage
  • 3. The Self Discovery
  • 4. Heavy Minds
  • 5. Three Years
  • 6. Letting Go

Chunk! No, Captain Chunk!

Now here is the band the whole room has been waiting for: The French invaders of the United States have arrived for the first date on their grassroots British tour. They open their set with a sample of a typical American chick-flick girl ignorantly introducing them only to decend into copius swearing about their name. "And here we go again" death growls Bertrand Poncet as the metalcore chaos of "Restart" transforms this basement of still and lifeless souls into mad men. It shows the kind of love these fans have for C!NCC! as the band members don't command them at all; the fans are all singing, all dancing and all moshing to the bass pedal-led punk of this band. A clearly positive decision to input their cover of Kesha's "We R Who We R" goes down really well.

You may either love or hate C!NCC!, but as a live band they are extraodinarily tight and they translate their material to the live setting very well. The vocals and the studio trickery they use are all flawlessly employed and prove that they aren't just over-produced on record to cover up serious flaws; they're more of a concious decision. And these strengths are shown through the rapic vocal fluctuating of "Bi-polar Mind" and "Reasons To Turn Back" and the glitchy chaos of the previously mentioned "We R Who We R". Without ever disappointing their fan base the band returns for an encore to play hit single "In Friends We Trust" with a brilliant reception, perhaps being the most sung-along track of tonight. However the only flaw in the set was a decision to play such a short set yet only finishing at 22:30. Ultimately, it was a very good and worthwhile show though, and with a fanbase like this I firmly believe this is the start of a promising tour and a good opportunity for C!NCC! to reach out to more fans .

8

Setlist:

  • 1. Restart
  • 2. Captain Blood
  • 3. Taking Chances
  • 4. I Am Nothing Like You
  • 5. We R Who We R
  • 6. Reasons To Turn Back
  • 7. Bi-polar Mind
  • 8. Born Of Adversity
  • 9. Haters Gonna Hate

- Encore

  • 10. In Friends We Trust

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