Billy Talent Live in Leeds

Billy Talent tour the UK on the release of their latest album, Billy Talent III. After a postponed event, Leeds 02 Academy is still full of people eager to see the band.

The support bands for Billy Talent provide the perfect start to the night. Canterbury start and seem like a strange band to be at a Billy Talent concert but their soft punk-pop is made up for by Cancer Bats, a heavy metal band. Both seem strange to start a punk concert but it’s perfect as Billy Talent are exactly in the middle.

            Billy Talent are off to a slow start with ‘The Dead Can’t Testify’ but quickly pick up the pace with ‘Devil in a Midnight Mass’. After this song, Ben Kowalewicz begins to apologise to the crowd for cancelling the show in October because “it was either keep playing gigs or dying”. He proves that he’s back to his strong, screaming, mosh-pit self when he begins to belt out ‘This Suffering’, sending the crowd into a frenzy.

            ‘Line and Sinker’ is the song on afterward. After, Ben talks to the crowd for a bit, making jokes as usual and asking the crowd to protect him from when he made fun of Kings of Leon at Leeds festival.

                The majority of the set list is all from the latest album Billy Talent III, which some of the crowd doesn’t seem too pleased with, but the real fans still love it, as the front half of the crowd goes crazy and the mosh pit in the middle of the crowd continues to grow as the show goes on.

            Billy Talent seem to have the knack of talking to the crowd and playing songs to the perfect amount of time. They don’t ramble on in irrelevance nor do they completely ignore the crowd. They also know how to get the best reaction out of the crowd as there is not a single person in the room who is standing still or quietly.

            The encore was the band’s fastest and most famous songs ‘Fallen Leaves’ and ‘Red Flag’. The gig seemed like it had only been on for 5 minutes and even though they played a brilliant set list, an amazing show and were entertainingly funny the 2 hours still left you wanting more. They’re the kind of band you want to go see over and over again, you can’t get enough of Billy Talent.