By Jase Walker
It’s the final part of the year, the big rush of November shows has started and I’m kicking it off with The Home Team at Melkweg in Amsterdam. I’ve been super keen on catching a headliner set from these guys for a while, especially after the set I saw at Slam Dunk earlier this year really sealed it for me. A delicious slice of pop first, heavy music.
Supported by Arrows In Action and True North, we’ve three bands that are no doubt going to knock it out of the park tonight and I can’t wait to experience it.
A little later than expected but it’s time for the evening to properly begin with True North taking the stage. The crowd is clearly engaged already considering the volume of cheers as they walked on.
They’re immediately reminding me of the likes of Normandie and Caskets, a similar vibe of pop infused metalcore that focuses mainly on clean vocals and ballady melodies. It’s also nice to see an opening band that’s getting a solid shake on the mixing too, a really solid sound that’s got a nice punch to it and great clarity to boot.
It’s also fantastic seeing how engaged the crowd is as well, especially after quite a few shows recently where people have given a fairly frosty response to the opening bands.
What a brilliant opening salvo for the night though. True North have been a real special set to get things going tonight and have gone far beyond just warming the place up for the next two bands.
Arrows In Action hit bang on time with a huge thumping Eurodance type intro before tying it into their intro song. These sound a lot closer to The Home Team in terms of sound, also somewhat similar to Honey Revenge with the sort of playful funky sound that still rips pretty hard. Definitely seems to be a bit of scope for a live saxophone player in this too, it’s super fun and bouncy stuff.
There’s a lot of people dancing around enthusiastically to them as well and just an all round good vibe in the room. They also remind me now and then a bit of Emarosa with the odd bit of ’80s pop flair, really enjoying this.
Their singer and guitarist decides to let his hair down and it’s quite some lovely locks the guys got which clearly caught the attention of a few ladies here going off the screaming. Their between-song banter is quite funny also and explains a bit about their history between themselves and The Home Team including a bonding experience in Jacksonville, Florida, over them playing to literally nobody except each other’s bands.
They’ve done a fantastic job of winning people over as well; they’ve got some fans in here clearly but seeing the rest of the crowd embrace them has been wonderful to see also. Another band added to my rotation for fun poppy music, what a great band and show!
It’s finally time for The Home Team as a headliner show! Opening up with ‘Turn You Off’, getting the show off on the right foot so let’s get stuck in! I guess I’m getting lost in singing along and I think this is reminding me just how much I’ve been listening to them over the past couple of years because I don’t learn words easily!
The entire venue is rammed all the way to the back, filled with people all jumping in unison to each song. I don’t think it’s an understatement to say that The Home Team has garnered themselves a pretty solid fanbase across Europe now.
This is so obvious when they hit ‘Right Through Me’, if people weren’t awake before now, they most certainly are now! To cover off a huge amount of their ‘Crucible…’ material, they’ve opted to do a bit of a rapid-fire set of songs in a similar way to what I’ve seen Enter Shikari do when there’s some big hitters they wouldn’t be able to fit into the show otherwise. ‘Roommates’, ‘Honest’, ‘Love & Co’ in quick succession yet not leaving out their best bits.
They’re really turning up the speed on how quick they’re jumping through songs, it’s past the rapid-fire moment of course but The Home Team are going all in on their business and barely giving the crowd a moment to breathe between songs.
The Arrows In Action singer jumps up for a vocal feature during ‘All Squeezed Out’, much to the clear joy of the women in the crowd. The dashing pair bounce off each other for a bit and spar with their super different singing pitches. We even get a guest guitar solo bit shortly after as well, always great seeing bands do this stuff. It’s these sorts of shows where it’s clear that everyone in the room knows the words to everything they’ve done and the band is fully thriving off it. It’s nice to see they’re still humble about it and talk with a level of disbelief that this is where they’re at now.
As we move towards the end of the set, The Home Team have decided on a string of songs to lead to a huge finisher. ‘Move It Or Lose It’, ‘Somebody Else’s Face’, ‘Watching All Your Friends Get Rich’ sets the hype levels to dizzying heights and the crowd mania is going full tilt now.
A bit of a different approach for an encore where the music doesn’t fully stop in the normal sense, but we’re back for the big finale. Beginning with ‘Loud’ and following it up with ‘Danger’ and finishing with ‘Worthy’.
What an immense show and everything I’d hoped to get out of a headliner with The Home Team. Given the success they’ve had on this tour I sure hope they aren’t away too long!
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