Papa Roach w/Madina fucking Lake & Heavens Basement

Papa Roach w/Madina Lake & Heaven’s Basement
Manchester Academy 1
11/10/2009
Thomas Geddes
***

Papa Roach must be counting their blessings that Madina Lake exist. If it wasn’t for their shambolic performance preceding the headline act, Papa Roach wouldn’t have looked all that great.

Openers Heaven’s Basement offered the greatest set. Ploughing through their hard rock warm up slot, seemingly determined to leave an impression. Then again so would you if your career had been reset thanks to managerial issues forcing you to change your name and start from scratch. Working the crowd as well as any band can to a filling room, everyone was jumping and clapping along. The high spirits of the crowd didn't last for too long. What succeeded them can only be accurately described in noises of disgust. A kind of shudder from within the stomach. Pure nausia. Madina Lake definitely entertained an audience strewn with young girls willing to get wet at any band with matching haircuts, but the missed high notes were glaringly obvious and the front-man’s failed stage dive was embarrassing, if not hilarious. I’d genuinely recommend a trip to the bar, as no matter how much you drink, you'll feel less sick by the end of it than if you were to watch the glorious shit stains on stage.

Because of this confirmation of evil, Papa Roach’s arrival onstage seemed more triumphant than it would have otherwise. Kicking off a set peppered with songs from newest album Metamorphosis, the Californian quartet never hit their stride, looking constantly stiff and pretty much as though they were only on stage because of contractual commitment. During classics such as ‘Blood Brothers’, they seemed just as bored with it all, despite huge reactions from the crowd. Even Jacoby Shaddix’s confusing ramblings of “Who wants to take a sh*t on the floor?’, appeared as though they’d be rehashed for the full tour. Their whole set seemed way too static, way too rehearsed. Not in a good, polished and honed kind of way either. More in an embarrassingly awkward way where there was no room to move. I Definitely would not want to see twice in one tour. If not for the fact the 'first gig' type crowd showed no respect for their peers (when someone falls over in a pit and you're the only one trying to help them up, you'll see what I mean) then for the fact that I'd fear, with all the deja vu, that there was a glitch in the Matrix.

(Edited version appears in Student-Direct:Mancunian Issue 5 dated October 19th 2009)