Fightstar at Newcastle Student Union

Reviewed by Mike Worthington

There’s something incredibly spirited about the way Fightstar play. Charlie Simpson never falters vocally nor fails to go through one song without furiously flicking his mop of hair around. He is clearly rocking out. The same it cannot be said, for the crowd. Although The Union would have proved a fantastic venue for FIghtstar to exhibit their rock based riffs, the venue was half full at best. No matter how energetic crowd favourites like ‘Mercury Summer’ and ‘Grand Unification Part 1’ were, the bands energy was seemingly lost on the eager faced fans of the front and the more cautious viewers from the back. In fairness to the band, their passion onstage helped compensate for lack of atmosphere but toward the end too many songs sounded the same. And you have to wonder whether Simpson was giving himself a headache with all that thrashing about. It begs the question, would Busted have boasted a bigger turn out? There were certainly enough Busted jokes in between songs - from the crowd only however. Fightstar certainly aim to please their fans, it’s just a shame enough of them weren’t there to return the favour.