After a lengthy absence Story Of The Year return to the UK to promote their third album, The Black Swan, and remind us what they are all about.  Firstly Anemic take the stage, and they set the night alight from the start.  The crowd reaction was great for an opening act and the early part of set was punctuated with much clapping and cheering as the band served up exactly what the Birmingham crowd demanded. Mind you based on the strength of ‘Cry Me A River’ which featured early in the set the reaction was no surprise.  Then something happened and everything seemed to fall flat; those originally captured by the energy of the early part of the show lost interest and with the diminishing crowd response the band seemed to shrink in size. Whether it was the fact that the songs became weaker or that their screamo/emo rock ceased being different enough to entertain and became nothing more than more carbon copies of other acts, who knows? 

Second band of the evening The Blackout almost managed the reverse of Anemic's situation.  At the start the sound was a bit off and there was little clarity to their music but as the set progressed it steadily improved and with songs like ‘It’s High Tide Baby!’, ‘The Beijing Cocktail’ and ‘I’ve Got Better Things To Do Tonight Than Die’ The Blackout’s legion of fans in attendance definitely went home happy. 

With the departure from the stage of The Blackout it appeared that more than a few in the audience followed suit and headed home early thus leaving more room for those staying on to enjoy  Story Of The Year. Opening with ‘And The Hero Will Drown’ and ‘Falling Down’ the band then delivered a double punch of new  new material in the shape of ‘The Antidote’ and ‘Wake Up’ and both sounded as good live as you would expect based on the quality of new album The Black Swan. With this in mind it was almost a crime that from there one in new material was rather thin on the ground with only ‘Tell Me (P.A.C.)’ and ‘Choose Your Fate’ getting an airing, the rest of the set coming from the band's first two albums, with ‘Our Time Is Now’, ‘Anthem Of Our Dying Day’, ‘Meathead’ and ‘Stereo’ being popular choices. 

In the live environment the hardcore side of the band is more evident than it is in the band's studio out, singer Dan Marsala covered a lot of the stage and spent copious amounts of time right down the the front amongst the throng of die hards. Guitarist Ryan Phillips and bassist The Skull are no slouches, as they joked around and played with a furious energy,  The Skull even going crowd surfing at one point, even at the risk of someone grabbing him somewhere unfortunate, and it obviously hurt.  A medley including ‘Paradise City’, a rather good rendition of ‘Back In Black’ and ‘Panama’, as well as some of that annoying ‘Umbrella’ song, proved good fun and simply served to set up the  ending salvo as ‘In The Shadows’, ‘Until The Day I Die’ and set closer ‘Is This My Fate? He Asked Them’ rounded things off with the band taking their leave after another solid performance.  With Story Of The Year returning later in 2008 for the Taste Of Chaos tour and a subsequent headline tour, hopefully more of the latest album will get the live treatment further down the line.

Darren Brushneen