It’s been a while since we have seen The Story So Far over in the UK, 2016 Slam Dunk Festival I think was the last time we managed to catch them. Since then the band have released their 4th album titled ‘Proper Dose’ and we were kindly invited down to the show at the Institute in Birmingham.
The first band on was All Get Out, a 4 piece emo-rock band who packed a punch with a high energy performance. I had not heard of them before but after seeing them for the first time I’m not going to forget them any time soon! I felt some Brand New vibes in their music and enjoyed the lead singers emotion that he threw into everything he did.
Next up, Citizen takes to the stage and blasts us in the face with ‘Roam The Room’ and the crowd instantly opens up into a huge circle pit and we are all sucked into that grungy-mellow vibe that they do oh so well. I can’t fault them live, they nail it. I very much enjoyed hearing ‘In the Middle Of It All’ from their new album, you can really hear how the band have evolved since their ‘Youth’ era.
I remember seeing The Story So Far in December 2015 on their self-titled album tour and they genuinely all looked like they wanted to be elsewhere. Not this time, the whole room beamed wide smiles including the members themselves as they walked on stage and burst into Nerve.
It’s very obvious to see that Parker Cannon is going through his Oasis stage as he swaggers up towards his fixed mic in his big Gallagher style coat, It might work over in the states but over here it just looks like a bad Noel Gallagher impersonation. I miss the days of Cannon finger pointing in my face and bouncing all over the stage, it gave the energy to a static band.
The whole set was a really good mix of songs from all 4 albums and kept us all engaged from start to finish. The Story So Far has always had a no bullshit approach to their sets and it’s good to see that still exists even though we have seen them mature with their recent release.
We are excited to see what’s next from all the bands involved and can’t wait to see them all again live.