The Subways (Posted Date: 25 Nov 2008, 05:00)

The Subways / Blackmarket / Trip Fontaine

19.11.08 Zeche, Bochum

"Scream for me, Long Beach!" I always have to think of Bruce Dickinson on Maiden's clasic Life After Death album whenever a band starts to animate the crowd to shout something. It it wasn't Long Beach but just Bochum but Billy Lynn from The Subways did his best to entertain the crowd at the nearly sold out Zeche as if it were a giant arena.
But first came Trip Fontaine from Rodgau. Their second album Dinosaurs In Rocketships sounds a bit boring to me but these five guys know how to rock live as they're sounding more powerful on stage reminding me of Trail Of Dead with all their intensity and energy.
Next up were Blackmarket from Arizona whose msuic was much appreciated by the kids though I was a bit bored with this standard indie rock played by three very young looking guys.
The Subways started their set with Kalifornia from their latest album All Or Nothing and the crowd started to go crazy almost immediately. How well known this trio from Hertfordshire already is you could see when the audience took over the singing on the second song, Young For Eternity. For the next hour bass player Charlotte seemed to be jumping around constantly while singer / guitarist Billy did some Iggy Pop posing while cheering the crowd on to go crazy. And that was what got me down. The band has so many great tunes and such an energy that they just don't need such cheap means to entertain their audience. Anyway, the kids seemed to love it and did as Billy told them to. Another point to nag about was the live sound. While a band like Blood Red Shoes can recreate their powerful album sound though being only a duo The Subways couldn't do the same with the excellent production of All Or Nothing. They only came close with the first encore, the melancholy masterpiece Strawberry Blonde.
Their biggest hit so far, Rock & Roll Queen, was held back for the finale and as usual, Billy took a dive into the audience and as the Zeche has such a nice balcony he went upstairs to jump down into the mosh pit.
So all in all it was a good show which could have been much better if the band would rely on their music and energy to get a crowd going than playing stupid stadium rock games.