Friday night gigs are always a bit of a mission especially when it comes to negotiating traffic, but when you're travelling there and you take a the wrong motorway it usually gets a lot worse. In this instance it didn't make it worse though, in fact the sat nav immediately reduced the eta – gotta love technology. Still, we got there in one piece and after taking in some of the King’s burgers we made it to the Wulfrun Hall in Wolverhampton.

 

What greeted us was one of the biggest varieties of gig goes I’ve ever witnessed. It appears that the Radio 1/Kerrang! crossover appeal has served Mallory Knox well as there were people in Volbeat t-shirts, As It Is t-shirts, double denim, vests and shorts and even the odd tracksuit wearing burke. It’s a testament to the work that the Cambridge five-piece have done over the past couple of years that such a wide array of people can be in the same room enjoying the same band.

 

After taking in a couple of the support bands along with a nice pint or two of beer in plastic cups it was time for the moment a nearly full room of people had been waiting for. As the band came on to stage with a bang the white curtain dropped and the giant ‘MK’ symbols were illuminated. As the band flew into the recognisable tones of Shout At The Moon it was easy to see why they have such crossover appeal. Girls were scattered around belting the lyrics out at the top of their lungs with twice as many young men standing around trying to be seen doing the same thing. Now, I’m not saying that that is the only reason that many of these people were at the gig, the band will have had a lot of say in that, but it will be a contributing factor to them going again.

 

With the beer flowing and the songs keeping on coming it was easy to get swept up in the hysteria of the evening, it is impressive to see a band create such excitement from just playing their own songs. I do feel though, that the on stage performance does leave something to be desired. There were points when it felt a bit lethargic and that left me personally a bit bored. The songs aren’t exactly the most energetic as it is and without the energy of the band backing it up it can feel a little underwhelming.

 

They picked it all back up though as if it were just some mid set/mid tour lull. Closing on Death Rattle and Dare You gave the mixed crowd what they wanted and closed out a well chosen selection of tracks taking in all elements of their musical talents. Having just about seen enough we decided to make a break for it before the encore, a wise move as the traffic was even worse on the way home. A nice bit of Bohemian Rhapsody made up for that though - a succesful night all round.