Lostprophets in Kentish Town review - Better Late Than Never!

Having been a Lostprophets fan since day 1, receiving The Fake Sound of Progress from Dave for my 15th birthday, a chance to see them perform at a Q Awards gig at a venue a fair bit smaller than what they usually play these days was too good to pass up.

The evening opened up with The New 1920, one of the newest from the bunch of bands of the Welsh rock/emo/metal invasion of recent years. They were a decent enough band, with some nice riffs in places, but the vocals didn't really seem to fit the music, so to make the most of their opportunities either a slight change in musical style or a change in vocal style (or even singer) may be required. They went down well enough with the rapidly filling Forum though and I've seen many better bands, but many worse too.

Last time I saw Lostprophets on a headlining tour was in December 2006, when they were supported by The Blackout. Fast forwarded nearly 3 years, and they're being supported by .... The Blackout. 3 Years is a long time however, and the Welsh (yes all the bands on tonight's bill are Welsh) 6 piece seem to have been working on their live act considerably in that time. They are a very popular choice of support act, with the crowd singing along, jumping around and some fully fledged pitting breaking out during various songs.

Last time I'd seen the Prophets live was their barnstorming festival closing set at Download in 2008 so they were going to have to go some to top that performance. Opening with new single It's not the end of the world but I can see it from here was a very popular choice, as the lower floor bounced up and down seemingly as one. Taking no break, they then launch into To Hell We Ride from Start Something, inciting a warzone in the forum (albeit one populated by mainly scene kids).

One problem that immediately becomes apparent is that everything is rather loud. In fact, it's too loud. At times Ian Watkins voice dominates over everything else, at other times you were struggling to hear him through booming bass and very loud Drums. About the only thing right in the mix was the level of the guitars, as the trademark catchy riffs to Can't Catch Tomorrow and A Town Called Hypocrisy could be heard perfectly. And this would have been ok if they'd stuck to the old favourites, as seemingly everyone in the capacity-full Forum knew every word. But they didn't. Including the opening single, 5 out of the 15 tracks were new material, seemingly all to be showcased on the forthcoming album The Betrayed. Unfamilar material + dodgy sound in my opinion equals a very bad combination. Every time the Prophets built some momentum with some old favourites (And She Told Me To Leave in particular going down a storm), they would bring out a new song and kill the proceedings off. Fair enough if they wanted to try out some of the new material in front of a live audience, but for a band coming onto their fourth album the set seemed too weighted in favour of the new, unreleased material.

That having been said, there were some high points. Last Summer went down like the Anthem it is, and Last Train Home had the whole of downstairs jumping around from the front to the bars at the back and sides. The traditional set ending of Shinobi vs Dragon Ninja and Burn Burn was fantastic, and put the gloss on what had been an up and down evening. Hopefully by the time the band return to London in February on the tour supporting The Betrayed (which is released in early January) the leanings towards the new material will not be such an issue and they don't have bad sound problems again. It was good, but could have been so much better.

Lostprophets setlist was: