GIG: New Found Glory - The Forum, 30th May

'Pop Punks not dead' - the merch reads out a quite potent message. The skate-pop scene never really died out, at least when particular avenues led to bands like New Found Glory, who are testament to this fact. Going since 1997, the band have played London eight times - this being the glorious latest addition.

The bill includes Tonight Is Goodbye who, to be quite honest, are pretty out of place here. Their twitchy scenester fumblings do not impress, but Attack! Attack! bring it all the way back with their sheer likeability. Tight songs, tight stagecraft, tight everything - sounds like a night at the local S&M bar. Only difference here is that you're getting raped by music instead. After a damn energetic set, we have main support Bayside who are PP veterans themselves. It's quite surprising how good some of their songs are despite the typical trappings of the genre: catchy intro; angsty or somehow downtrodden verse; massive, I-don't-care-that-you're-a-girl-and-you-don't-want-to-go-out-with-me-'cause-I'm-shy-and-I'm-a-loser kinda explosion of a chorus; repeat. They mix in almost metallic heaviness, Ska-punk influences ala Less Than Jake, and gild it all with a generally bastardly singing style (of course, with the obligatory nasal whine). And the crowd love them. Bless.

New Found Glory, in turn, deliver a rollicking set worthy of the craziness it duly ellicits. 'All Downhill From Here' is a natural shot-in-the-arm opener, its stupidly good shoutalong 'and you keep pulling me dowwwwwwwwwn' simply gets everyone bopping. As if they actually need any prompting anyway: before the first note even sounds, I'm on the inner wall of a moshpit that seems to have opened up from underneath. Mmm, promising.
What ensues is NFG classic after NFG classic; 'Head On Collision', ''Dressed To Kill' and 'This Disaster' all spring forth from the band's exuberant characters. Jordan Pundik, lead vocalist, looks a little cream crackered now and then, but his energy picks up during the night, and by a quarter of the way through the show, he is on fire. Chad Gilbert, the band's outspoken guitarist, keeps the momentum going with s few scattered speeches, some silly, some meaningful, and some slightly pretentious. Most niggling of all though, is his guitar sound: it's too fucking quiet. Alas, it never gets turned up, so at points when he launches into a riff, I can only guess where the beat is and headbang as much in time as is possible. This is the aural equivalent of playing one of those Whack-a-Mole games, only the Moles never fucking appear.
The sweat never stops pouring, and neither does the whole crowd singing along. To every single line of every song. No joke. They should be getting paid for choir work at this gig. It's clear how long-reaching the legacy New Found Glory have, and the tunes certainly make a point of how undeniable that should be.

Ending their set, obviously but appropriately, with 'My Friends Over You', the crowd erupt once more, the band give it their all and they are done once more for the night. As Gilbert said earlier, 'what else would I want to do with my life, than play music in New Found Glory?', that question has now been answered: nothing, if it's as good as this all the time.

Overall - 8.5 / 10