Tonight’s line up was supposed to be Taking Back Sunday with supporting acts Fight Star and Communique. But Communique cancelled more than a month before the show. Apparently it wasn’t necessary to replace them with another band because only Fight Star and Taking Back Sunday played.

Fight Star doesn’t have an album out yet, but they already have the attitude and the knowledge on how to play the crowd if you will. This is rather remarkable for a new and unknown band. But all that has to do with singer/front man Charlie Simpson. He was, up until now, the front man of punky poppy boy band Busted --a huge success in Great Britain as well as Europe. They scored a number one hit in England and sold over half a million albums to little teenage girls everywhere. That sure explains the number of screaming and hyper underage girls who were at the Melkweg.

But Busted is no more and Fight Star wants to be judged purely by their music. And to be honest, it’s actually not too bad. Pretty standard emorock with sweet melodies and screaming vocals as the finishing touches. I was worried it was going to be like another boy band show and judging by the people present, it would be. But I got the impression that Simpson wasn’t overly filled with joy by them. He didn’t pay a lot of attention to them but more to the music which is always a good thing. And I reckon this is a band we will be hearing more from…with or without their teeny fans.

The status of Taking Back Sunday is really different here compared to the States. Over here they barely fill up the old hall, but over there they’re selling out huge venues. They clearly still have a lot of work to do on the other end of the ocean and that’s exactly what they’re planning to do.

Opening with “Set Phasers to Stun”, it was madness all around. The sound wasn’t too great in the beginning, and vocalist Adam Lazzara started a bit off key but luckily that changed quite quickly. They really had a drive to play tonight as they were very energetic and jumping everywhere, a good improvement on their last show 6 months ago where they played with Coheed and Cambria, Bouncing Souls and Strung Out. I guess being main act changes your attitude a bit. The first 4 songs were hectic and energetic, but after that they were out of breath and the tiredness started to show.

Not a whole lot changed since last time. Their set consisted of their old songs mixed well with their new ones for an ongoing 45 minutes. Ending with the crowd’s favorite “Cut without the E (Cut from the Team)” they finally got a change to catch their breath and rest a little.

They came back with a beautiful semi-acoustic version of “New American Classic”, complete with barstool and all. The hit “A Decade Under Influence” came right after that and everyone was screaming their lungs out with the ‘to hell with you and all your friends’ part. They played for about an hour.

So what if Taking Back Sunday isn’t the most original or interesting band within the whole emo genre? Their enthusiasm and attitude make up for it, and all in all, it was a good show and everyone there had a great time.

Review by: Laura