St Albans gig review

Pioneer gig review 5th February

By Jamie

Due to unforeseen circumstances original headliners, Fate of a Stranger couldn’t make it tonight but in their place are the local legends Praden. 

At the beginning of the night Change of Plan took to the stage to deliver a kick in the teeth to all the kids watching tonight with their opener, 'The Downfall of Us All' cover. It put their set of quick paced punk rock songs in motion perfectly. Their guitarist/vocalist, Dann, served up the energy of their songs, jumping around and screaming the lyrics. There were two highlights of their set tonight - their opener and their own song 'Spider Webs'. This song is a catchy pop punk song and it had an awesome Ska breakdown at the end. The band played hard and well tonight.

Next up was Taken Advantage who took to the stage for the next half hour or so. They performed a brilliant range of songs where lead singer, Meyrick, showed a range of talent by showing a great vocal performance. He then he broke out his keyboard halfway through their set and this provided great entertainment for everyone in ear shot of this band. However, he then announced that this would be the last Taken Advantage gig to take place as their drummer was leaving but this just made their final set seem even more special. 

Their set was filled to the brim with huge choruses, immense vocals and amazing solos. It ticked all the boxes of a great performance. The band created a special atmosphere while they played tonight, it's just a shame that this would be their last gig. They put in an absolutely stunning performance and this put the atmosphere into the Pioneer tonight. It would take some performance from Praden to beat that...

As Praden got on stage, there was an expectation of a good performance tonight. However, their drummer had a little trouble with setting up the drums and the crowd jokingly boo’d him, which then cued cheers from other members of the audience. But they soon got underway and served up their well known songs to the audience - filled with all the band members’ friends, whose following is also much larger than any other local band, were jumping around and creating a bit of a party atmosphere. This can defiantly be seen when you looked at the crowd. 

I can’t remember a time during Praden’s set, that the crowd were not moshing. Praden are definitely a fun, energetic band that would always make every show a party. However, tonight, the show belonged to Taken advantage they played a special set tonight on their last ever gig, it was rather fitting.

Gigs at the Pioneer take place on the first Friday of every month, information can be found here.  

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