Red Jumpsuit Apparatus @ Relentless Garage (Photo: Kate Harvey)
On Wednesday a friend and I went to see Florida rock band Red Jumpsuit Apparatus play at the Relentless Garage in London. This is their first UK tour since 2008 so they’d kept their UK fans waiting for quite a while, and they didn’t fail to deliver.
We arrived at the venue in Highbury at 6pm and there was already a queue forming up the street, with many fans wearing RJA t shirts. As we walked to join the back of the queue, I heard people halfway down saying that they had been waiting since before 5pm, proving how eager the band’s fans were to see them live for the first time in years (or first time ever, as was the case for us). Doors opened at 7pm and the barriers in front of the stage were immediately hidden by the die-hard fans prepared to stay put for four solid hours just to get the best view of the main act. Kate (the friend) and I, however, made our way to the bar and stayed at the back of the venue for the while, people-watching and freezing from the intense air conditioning in the venue (which reminded us both of a school or town hall: one long room, stage at one end, bar at the other, groups of 2, 3 or 4 people clustered together around the room).
The support bands for the night were Lyu, a band from Birmingham, and Yashin, an unsigned post-hardcore band from Glasgow. Lyu came on a few minutes late, just after 8pm. Unfortunately we didn’t watch them, instead opting to sit in the Relentless ‘Minibar’ – a room separate from the main venue. We went back in to see part of Yashin’s set, who came on, also a few minutes late, just after 8.45pm.
From what I saw, Yashin are a promising band – with good music and excellent stage presence. The two vocalists – American-born singer Harry Radford and screamer Kevin Miles – managed to keep the crowd entertained and the attention evenly focused. I had only listened briefly to a couple of their songs a few hours earlier (one of which was an excellent cover of Everytime by Britney Spears) but I found myself enjoying their performance, despite not being able to sing (or mouth) along to their songs, unlike members of the crowd wearing Yashin t shirts who obviously followed the band loyally. Singer of Red Jumpsuit Apparatus Ronnie Winter came and sang for part of one of their songs (I couldn’t tell you which), which ended their set on a high and made the crowd even more desperate for RJA to come on stage, after being given a taste of Ronnie’s powerful voice.
Red Jumpsuit Apparatus finally came on at 9.45pm, to very loud screams. Singer Ronnie had cut his trademark long hair for charity so looked quite different from the singer we all remembered.
They opened with In Fate’s Hands, the first track from their first studio album Don’t You Fake It (2006). This was followed by Damn Regret and Cat and Mouse, both from the same album, and then their new single Choke, from new EP The Hell or High Water (2010). After four more songs (the full setlist can be found here.), the band finally got to what everyone had been waiting for…their biggest hit, Face Down from Don’t You Fake It. However, Ronnie opened the song with a rendition of Love The Way You Lie by Rihanna & Eminem before moving smoothly into Face Down and making the crowd go crazy.
They ended with Grim Goodbye, the hidden track from Don’t You Fake It (most of the audience seemed to be very pleased that they stuck mainly to their first album throughout the evening).
It was a great evening with all the bands performing excellently, and the main reason we were all there – Red Jumpsuit Apparatus – definitely did not disappoint.
The band’s third studio album is due for release sometime this month.
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