Ash: Live Review

Spring & Airbrake (Thursday 26^th November 2009)

Ash are one of those bands that never live short of delivering a confident and energetic performance, this record was not be broken as they flew back for their homecoming gig at their favourite Belfast venue, ‘The Spring & Airbrake’.

From euphoric melodies uniquely formed in their somewhat controversial ‘A-Z Series’ to the teenage simplicity of the likes of ‘Petrol’ and ‘A Life Less Ordinary’  the Downpatrick trio created an almost fulfilled atmosphere in their last date of their UK Tour with support from local act ‘Panama Kings’ who emerged to be far from a generic.

The mature ‘Ash’, composed of Tim Wheeler, Mark Hamilton and Rick McMurray boasted a thrilling set thriving on the crowds constant clapping and singing, even to new singles ‘True Love 1980’, ‘Arcadia’, ‘Joy Kicks Darkness’ and ‘Tracers’ .

The weaving of buoyancy between hard riffs that proved striking allowed the crowd to embrace the critically acclaimed live performers with a passionate reaction making most of the lengthy set memorable, even for those who had one too many. What made this spectacular gig – well spectacular was how Ash engaged their audience pulling them through resurrected classic punk hits to popish chart toppers to the colossal guitar screeching anthems.