You Me At Six ★★★★

Glasgow SECC, 27-03-12

7.00 - 7.30 The Skints

7.45 - 8.15 Mayday Parade

8.30 - 9.00 Kids In Glass Houses

9.20 - 10.55 You Me At Six

You Me At Six have been gradually growing over the past few years, playing smaller Glasgow venues such as the ABC and O2 Academy, and have now made it into the SECC. With queues lining the length of the centre from the middle of the afternoon, hall 3 filled up rapidly with the 6000 fans who sold the venue out.

First on were The Skints. What to say about The Skints? Londoners. Reggae. Very odd choice for a pop-punk gig with a line-up like it had. The band were good at what they did, but didn't get much of a reaction from the audience who looked more confused than amused. This was mostly due to the relaxing feel of the reggae, which was in contrast to what was expected from the night. That said, it was a nice try at opening people's eyes to different music, and we don't doubt that in the correct setting The Skints would do brilliantly. They were also a very attentive band, noticing when people were brought over the front barrier and telling the crowd to look after each other, which gained them brownie points in our eyes.

Mayday Parade were on second, and got the night onto the expected pop-punk track. Obviously popular with the young crowd, the American band played a good mix of their well-known songs such as Jersey and Black Cat, which most of the audience sang along to. Lively on stage, they were jumping around and got the audience to follow suit. A band that has been kicking around for a while but yet to have a major tour in the UK, the reception from the Glasgow audience should have them moving upwards sooner rather than later.

Kids In Glass Houses are relative old hats at the touring thing. Having usually seen the Welsh boys in smaller venues, including Apollo 23 for an acoustic set, we were pleased to see them using the larger venue as well as they did. They got the crowd hyped up for the headliners, playing a good mix of old and new. Although most of the crowd seemed to know their music, the band got the best reactions for their older tracks such as Give Me What I Want, Easy Tiger and Saturday. We personally feel the band should take this as an indication of what their fans want, as they could easily pull off a larger headline tour than they have done before with the release of the right album.

Headliners You Me At Six had the fans excited from the get go. Dropping a curtain in front of the stage, they each stood on a podium holding up numbered placards and could be seen by the audience when the lights flashed on. The curtain dropped and the crowd got a proper view of the stage, with an incredibly high drum podium and an excited frontman Josh bounding about. Again, this band performed a good range of their back catalogue, including old favourites Take Off Your Colours and Finders Keepers, and new The Swarm and Jaws On The Floor. The band were constantly playing, with little time in between songs for much other than introductions and quick questions. Slowing the night down with No One Does It Better and Crash, including a lovely little story about Josh have a Glaswegian grandfather, the audience were clinging to every word. Going off-stage for a short while, they came on and performed a lively encore of Underdog, Stay With Me and new favourite Bite My Tongue, leaving the crowd happy and tired out. The only things missing from the night was crowd-surfing, of which there was a surprising lack given the fan's participation at festivals (have a wee peek at this), which may have been due to the missing (crowd-surfing) song Save It For The Bedroom, a usual staple of the You Me At Six setlist. Although unusual, it is unlikely that the front rows were disappointed about not being sat and stood on, so all in all a very good night!