With Confidence - Live Review

With Confidence @ Rescue Rooms, Nottingham - 21/09/18

The Rescue Rooms in Nottingham is one of those perfect venues, a little black box of a room that lends itself as a proving ground to bands looking to step up the touring ladder. On this unusually warm late September evening, Aussie pop-punkers With Confidence have brought a little bit of the Oceanic heat with them on the opening leg of their ‘Love and Loathing’ UK tour. 

We unfortunately missed opening act Anavae due to some traffic issues, but we arrive at the venue just as Story Untold are hitting the stage. If we are being honest, there is a level of saturation in the pop-punk scene at the moment, and while bands such as Neck Deep and headliners With Confidence are sticking their head above the parapet and doing something to get people talking, Story Untold are perhaps hitting the road a little bit early. Playing a set consisting of few original songs, they make the decision to play a medley of pop-punk covers, which although going down well with the audience perhaps shows a level of immaturity from the band who actually had a spot on the final ever Warped Tour.

‘Love and Loathing’ is the second outing from With Confidence, and shows how the band have grown up a little since ‘Better Weather’. Even though we still experience heartbreak, loss and agnst through the bands performance, the bands growth brings a little something extra. They’re really starting to develop in their performance and confidence, success has a way of filling a band up with confidence…

The guys created a really fun, personal and intimate atmosphere for us at the rescue rooms, they are obviously very talented in both song writing and playing live, but we did feel the sound at the rescue rooms let the guys down a bit on this night, with balances not quite sounding right and at times there being an unbearable level of reverb. 

When front-man and bassist Jayden ends up breaking his bass, we end up with an impromptu cover of ‘Wonderwall’ which brings the crowd together, and keeps spirits up while a new bass guitar is secured, and offers one of those magic live moments that only happen when the planets align, and a moment which only people in that room on the night will ever experience, additional member (we thiiiiiink his name was Mark) really earned his fee here, coming through, blasting out this classic and keeping the momentum of the evening rolling. 

This album carries on the rise of With Confidences star, these songs are so resounding in their message, and played live the emotion and the joy is present even more so. The room was pumping and was packed wall to wall. Genuinely one of our very favourites at the minute, we hope to see With Confidence again real soon.