Exit Ten - Norwich Waterfront - 21st February 2013

Now we have another live review, and even though I was at this gig, I've decided to let my friend Dave write the review as he wanted to give it a shot, so here it is, his review of one of our favourite bands, Reading metalcore geniuses Exit Ten!

It was a cold night in Norwich, and don't worry, I'm not going off into story mode here.

The Venue: the waterfront, right in the heart of Norwich, and for tonight's entertainment, the band we call Exit Ten, if you haven't heard of them, then you've been missing out.

With no need for scarfs and warm coats, we arrived in Norwich, some of us needed to eat, so Subway it was. When arriving at the venue, we encountered one of Norwich's many drunken hobos, I nicknamed him Gaahl (after the ex-Gorgoroth vocalist - ParaLegend), but thats between you and me. He seemed to be singing nursery rhymes, so we left him to it.

As we walk up to the Waterfront, we all knew that we were in for an interesting night, with Exit Ten, playing upstairs, and with "hardcore band" Your Demise downstairs, we all knew what was coming next...yup we knew instantly where to queue. Colourful hoodies, tight as fuck jeans, shoes bigger than the titanic, hair straightened to the max, in a few words, just embarrassing to look at. Yes that was the Your Demise queue.

As we got into the venue, it wasn't going to be a busy night upstairs, 150-200 people max turned up, all waiting around to see how the night would occur, and this is when we encountered our first band of the night, a local five piece band by the name of Standing Tall.

Ryan from Exit Ten, up close and personal

They all had the looks of someone dragged out of uni for the night, dressed quite geeky to be fair, shirts with the top button up, but they looked like they wanted to get things going, despite their constant shouts into the crowd, none of the crowd looked impressed with what was going to happen. As they kicked off the music for the night, still none of the crowd look enthusiastic with what was going on. Standing Tall (3) were muscially tight, did they have nice riffs? Yes they did. drumming on par? Yes i think so, but to be quite honest with you, it went downhill from when the vocalist opened his mouth. As he tried to "sing", it just sounded very generic, we've all heard this whiney voice before, and experimenting with vocal harmonies and the typical “whoa oh oh” choruses didn't quite work, you could tell the crowd were bored, it got worse when he tried to scream and shout down the microphone. Try harder and come back with a new vocalist yeah? Despite his constant attempts to communicate with the crowd, no-one gave a shit when he announced his cut his hand open cutting up an avocado.

Support act number two were next, My Preserver (8) had to do something to impress the difficult crowd. And from the word go, they had WOW appeal, if Enter Shikari were prog rock, this is what they'd sound like.

To get the crowd going, the vocalist had to jump into the crowd to get them to move forward and make sure what they were hearing, was going to be epically brilliant. Did they do this? HELL YEAH. Every band needed a vocalist like this guy, his voice was exceptional, he kept the crowd going throughout the set, it was kindly helped with the music that was going on behind him, nice clean riffs, ravaged and angry drumming...and weird synth parts every so often. A real crowd pleaser, if you need to see a band live, I'd definitely check out their music, and see them live, you'll be in for a treat.

We all knew what was coming next...right?

The brilliantly talented 5 piece from Reading, also known as Exit Ten (10) came onto the stage, and kicked things into gear with the song “Life”. As usual, they had the stage presence which every band needs, just knowing that they're playing to an awesome crowd, but trying to get everyone involved at the same time. Ryan (vocalist) constantly singing into the crowd, and doing some sort of funky dance at the same time, definitely a sight to see. Ridiculously catchy and musically tight, these guys are just pure joy to watch. They played all the classic songs, as you would expect, and at times, you could hear the crowd singing louder then Ryan himself at times which was simply brilliant. Yes the set was a tad short, which is upsetting, but the crowd didn't really care due to it being filled with classic songs from each release. When the last song of the night was played, “Lion”, everyone was stunned. Just a beautiful song in itself, it meant a lot to everyone in the building, with someone getting too involved in the occasion by having a little cry, but why not, with Exit Ten taking a break, we're not going to be seeing them for the rest of 2013 so it was better to enjoy them while they were here.

Tonight proved to be a success, but Exit Ten never seem to fail, you need to hear their songs, get involved with the lyrics and put a smile on your face. If you havent seen them live yet, I suggest you do it, you'll be left musically stunned and wanting to see more. Despite the poor first Support act, it was a great night of great music.

Dave White

Exit Ten Setlist:


1. Life
2. Curtain Call
3. Godspeed
4. Warriors
5. Perish In The Flames
6. Piece By Piece By Piece
7. Suggest A Path
8. Sunset
9. Drama
10. Resume Ignore
11. My Great Rebellion
12. Technically Alive
13. Lion
 

Hey guys, ParaLegend here. Just want to say for myself that these guys are truly amazing and you should check them out if you don't know them, I've seen them several times now, met them and have signed copies of all their releases. They're definitely a band I could never get tired of seeing. I'll be back tomorrow with a new album review. Stay Metal \m/