Lower Than Atlantis took their UK headline tour to Southampton’ Engine Rooms last Thursday as they brought Australian band The Faim and Milk Teeth alongside them as support. We managed to catch up with The Faim before the action kicked off as bassist Stephen Beerkens and lead guitarist Michael Bono of The Faim talked about the show, working with Josh Dun of Twenty One Pilots on new music and more!
With it already being revealed that Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz co-wrote The Faim’s Saints of the Sinners and with the band working alongside side Blink 182’s Mark Hoppus and Twenty One Pilots’ Josh Dun as well their music being produced by Goldfinger’s John Feldman, fans were in for a real treat with these four Perth lads.
And they certainly did not disappoint right from the start. Completed by lead singer Josh Raven and drummer Sean Tighe, it’s hard to see how The Faim have only released two songs to date yet their performance was incredible.
With elements of Fall Out Boy and Panic! at the Disco within their music, The Faim certainly knew how to entertain a crowd from the start. Lead singer Josh gave his all throughout the show as did the rest of the band as the lads started with two unheard songs as like the majority of their tracks. They started on My Heart Needs To Breathe and Infamous that both set the scene for the rest of the show. Next up was their latest track Midland Line which you could tell a lot of the crowd knew and checked these boys out before. It was great to see the track live after the band released it just last month and already you can tell it will be a real big hit. It was a packed out crowd already for the first band which you don’t tend to see that often.
Next up was Make Believe and Summer is Curse which were both great tracks in their own right. As the band built up to play their most famous up to date, The Faim played I Can Feel You and Million Stars which managed to get everyone in the venue on their feet. With just one song left, it was great to see The Faim play their debut single Saints of the Sinners where you could certainly see Pete Wentz’s influences in the track. Released in February this year, the track has already achieved 90,000 views on YouTube and could see why as it is a real anthem and will certainly be played on countless playlists throughout the year.
With a tour in their home country Australia to come (with Lower Than Atlantis joining them for selected dates), a headline UK tour as well as festivals such as Slam Dunk Festival, The Faim have an exciting few months ahead of them. Above all having actually met these guys now, I can honestly say they were so down to earth and have an incredibly bright future ahead of them!
Gloucestershire’s band Milk Teeth then took to the stage as the fans yet again were treated one of the best up and coming bands the UK has to offer. With Becky Blomfield on bass, Billy Hutton on guitar, Oli Holbrook on drums and guitarist Chris Webb completing the lineup, Milk Teeth are one of those bands who fail to never give a bad performance. In fact, quite the opposite, Milk Teeth yet again showed how much they deserve the main support slot giving their all throughout their set. The quartet started with tracks Nearby Catfight and Crows Feet that were both great additions to the set. With the crowd getting even more buzzed, Milk Teeth continued with their energy and performed Lillian, Prism and the brilliant Brain Food. Notable songs Brickwork and Swear Jar then followed as you could tell that everyone in the venue was really digging their music.
Fight Skirt, I Stabbed You First and Owing your Okayness all finished a solid set from Milk Teeth and certainly warmed up the packed out Southampton crowd. Without doubt, Milk Teeth will be headlining venues such as Engine Rooms in no time at all.
Last up was the incredible headliners Lower Than Atlantis from Hertfordshire and these boys certainly knew how to put on one hell of a show. Even before the set started, fans shouted out the letters ‘LTA’ over and over again until lead singer Mike Duce, guitarist Ben Sansom, drummer Eddy Thrower and bassist Dec Hart took to the stage. Despite Lower Than Atlantis releasing their latest album Safe In Sound last year, it was refreshing to the band play a lot of their older songs for fans.
Beforehand, the band asked fans to bring as many inflatables with them and their was certainly a lot around the venue and Mike even wore an inflatable Mexican hat. They started with the brilliant Had Enough which set the scene for the rest of the show with plenty of fans singing throughout. As Dumb followed, the atmosphere was electric and it increased just that little bit more when Lower Than Atlantis performed Emily. Mike certainly knew how to entertain a crowd and throughout the show chanted the word ‘Sambuca’ as a fan got him three shots during the show which he helped drink. With the crowd still chanting ‘LTA’, the band followed up with Ain’t No Friend and Work for It. Mike explained before Work For It that they started their European tour in Germany and that there was a circle pit for it so he asked the crowd to do this also which they did in some fashion.
They then played the brilliant Get Over It followed by Far Q which was the title track of their debut album released in 2018. The track started with Mike running in the circle pit which shows just much he appreciates his fans and how he wants to have a good time like everyone else. This was certainly a heavier song and showed much the band have changed in genre over the years. Then Mike done something really special and kept the circle pit open for this next song where he sung an acoustic track in the middle of it. That track was Another Sad Song and despite the crowd being quiet, there was a moment where he told a security guard to shut up in a jokingly way as you could hear the Walkie talkie. Mike then showed what a fun band they truly are as he started to ask fans if they had beers with them and chanted the word ‘jug’ to try and get fans to down their beers during the track Beach Like The Trees.
Mike then explained how they use to play house parties in Southampton and asked fans to crowd surf however to also help people in the front row and to support the younger fans. Lower Than Atlantis then finished their set with Love Someone Else, I Would and the brilliant Words Don’t Come So Easily which was about love and heartbreak.
The band followed up with an encore with two classic tracks which were English Kids in America and Here We Go where once again Mike showed how he likes to have fun and crowd surfed into the crowd during the track. Overall it was one hell of a night of rock and definitely up there as the best gig I have been to in 2018 if not ever.