Papa Roach Are Back To Their Live Best
Published
For the past few months, California rock titans Papa Roach have been riding upon the waves of their latest studio album, FEAR
(read our review here).
At the end of their UK jaunt lies a sold out date at Nottingham’s Rock City, and it was a pretty amazing night.
Entering the main hall to crashes of guitars and little shards of electronic music can only mean that The One Hundred have started their set. I specifically remember hearing a song by this London quartet back in November and instantly dismissing it as a poor effort, and thus I had absolutely no expectations.
Minutes later and it’s clear that The One Hundred are one of the bands whose studio recordings do them no justice. Hearing the aforementioned song ("Unleashed") live made it clear that restraints on volume are the band’s biggest enemy, and hearing them live completely changed my opinion of them. I can’t remember the last time I was so impressed by an opening band, so look out for these guys.
Following The One Hundred, Coldrain have a lot to live up to. A fine Japanese metal act, Coldrain managed to make an equally positive impression on tonight’s 2200 strong crowd, as seen by the bouncing bodies and the space in the floor for moshers. Masato on vocals didn’t take long to begin flaunting his impressive vocal range – from ear-curdling screams to possibly the most pleasant, moving clean vocals in the genre, Masato had the crowd won over in minutes. At risk of sounding repetitive, Coldrain are another band who should see amazing things really soon – keep an eye out!
With such an excellent support set, Papa Roach had their work cut out for them and would have to rely on more than just loyalty to make a mark on this occasion. Luckily, their new album kicks ass. In response to the band kicking off with the eponymous track of the record, "Face Everything And Rise", the crowd quickly lost their minds. P-Roach classic "Getting Away With Murder" followed, and things escalated… some more recent tracks like "Where Did The Angels Go?" and "Broken As Me" showcase Papa Roach’s new, more riff-oriented music style.
From there, it becomes clear that all the people in the room love different parts of the Papa Roach discography. Somehow, the band managed to play songs from all their albums dating back to 2000’s multi-platinum 'Infest', and different people showed bigger reactions to different albums, which is always an interesting observation. The Sing-along peaked during 2006’s 'Forever', whilst the ‘physical’ side peaked during 'Blood Brothers'.
The band also reached all the way back to their pre-Infest days and played "Tightrope", which was admittedly the low-point of the show, in terms of crowd response and energy. That said, the song was right in the middle of the set, and served as a much-needed chance for people to rest. Overall, energy was high and the atmosphere was incredible, and lead singer Jacoby Shaddix still clearly fucking loves what he’s doing. Pretty safe to say Papa Roach would fall off the face of the earth if Jacoby suddenly misplaced his passion.
Isolating the new material, the band played a total of 4 songs from 'Fear' – "Face Everything and Rise", "Broken As Me", "Warriors" and "Falling Apart". Crowd response was surprisingly high and positive, especially during "Warriors". It’s usually dangerous territory to play so many new songs, but this amazing response suggests that Papa Roach have reached a new high point, and with this album doing so well, the band’s future is truly anyone’s guess, but the one thing that’s clear is that the band have climbed out of the little slump they seemed to be in, especially with this stellar performance at Rock City.
To find out more about Papa Roach click here.
Words by Blaine Marshall
