SUM 41
Support: The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, American Hi-Fi
Braehead Arena, Glasgow
Monday February 3rd 2003

First things first, the organisation of this venue is terrible. It's in a dreadful location, it takes ages to find, and then once you finally get in after standing outside for ages (in the snow none the less!) they take your ticket off you and give you a wrist band. The toilets, although signposted (one of those signs now lives in my bedroom) still took an eternity to find, and the bar had an eternal queue of around seventy people. Oh and the floor was concrete. Which is always nice.

But as soon as Boston's American Hi-fi graced the ample stage, the venue managed to redeem itself. The sound quality was excellent, and the atmosphere was pretty great too. The band opened up with "My Only Enemy", a track from their 2001 debut album, and from there on in, played a perfect set full of punk-pop gems. "Flavor Of The Week" being their best known tune went down an absolute treat, as did the quite superb "Hi-fi Killer". Now, the band are doing these shows as promotion for their new album, "The Art Of Losing" and therefore played a couple of new tracks in among the old favourites. "The Breakup Song" is a mid-paced stomper, which has a catchy as hell melody,a and is one of those songs that will stick in the head long after you've heard it. The new album's title track is an absolute killer tune, the perfect choice for lead off single, a punky verse and a super-catchy chorus makes for what is a great song which we will be hearing again and again. The guys finished off their very good set with "Wall Of Sound", which had the vast arena rocking out once more. The set reminded me exactly why I loved this band the first time I heard them, let's hope they do some more shows of this quality in Glasgow in the not too distant future.

Second band on the bill were Hi-Fi's fellow Bostonians, ska legends The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Half an hour simply isn't long enough for these guys to show everything that they can do (we got no "Rascal King" "Jackknife To A Swan" "I'll Drink To That" or "I Want My City Back", to name but a few tonight) but in their half an hour, they pleased their present fans who skanked the set away, and converted a load more to the cause. You just can't help but move when the Bosstones are on stage, and their punkier numbers such as "You Gotta Go!" get everyone into a frenzy. Old favourites such as "1-2-8" were mixed with tracks from the new album such as the excellent "Everybody's Better", a more uplifting song I have yet to hear. Dicky led the crowd in an almighty sing-a-long to the old Bosstones favourite "Where'd You Go", before "The Impression That I Get" reminded everyone what chart hits used to sound like before reality TV. They closed in chaotic fashion with that most hardcore of hardcore songs "Lights Out". Fine set from a band who keep on impressing, long into a fantastic career.

Then the moment the kiddies were waiting for! But when a band puts on this good a live show, it's irrelevant how old the majority of their fans are. Opening up with "Hyper Insomnia Para Condrioid", they had the vast crowd eating from their hands, and the bouncy power-pop of "My Direction" did nothing to change that. By this time, the crowd had got surprisingly aggressive, and I found myself a nice little spot where myself and a few other guys beat hell out of each other all night. Like them or not (I'm in the liking camp) you cannot argue against the fact that Sum 41 know how to put on a show. Rock star posturing, funny between song banter, which doesn't drag on too long and the songs to go. "Fat Lip", the song which broke this band was superb tonight, faster than on record, and really rocking, it was a set highlight even played so very early on. And for a further hour, the guys rocked the arena with their pop-punk gems filled with metal riffs. "Nothing on My Back" "In Too Deep" and ""No Brains" (the song formerly known as ""yesterday.com") all sounded superb in the live environment, and the more aggressive tracks such as the excellent top 20 single "Over My Head" and the frantic blast of "A.N.I.C" (Anna Nicole Smith is a Cunt) went down a treat. In among the songs was some Avril mocking (yes, tell that bitch that she can bugger off) Queens Of The Stone Age and Metallica homage (the opening few bars of "No One Knows" was excellent, and "Master Of puppets" pleased the old skool rockers in the house!) and some Guttermouth covering (yes that's right, Sum 41 cover Guttermouth now! "Bruce Lee Vs. The Kiss Army" was bloody excellent tonight). They finished the set with the couplet of singles "The Hell Song" and the brilliant "Still Waiting" and it wasn't long before they were back on stage tearing through "Motivation" "Hooch" and then finishing off with the fantastic "Pain For Pleasure" not once but twice. "Sum Like It Hot" it was hot tonight, a very good show indeed. Sum 41 haven't quite displaced Green Day as kings of pop-punk yet, but I think they might just have taken Blink 182's place as heir to the throne.