New Found Glory – O2 Academy Bristol

Tuesday, November 29

THE tour was called Pop Punk's Not Dead. And the problem is that when you have to tell someone something isn't dead, it's usually on life support at the very best.

But if pop punk is about to die, the corpse in terms of New Found Glory – the headliner on the tour – is doing a little more than twitching.

NFG, the now foursome from Florida, can lay claim to the rather odd title of the hardest achilles tendons in rock.

They burst on to the stage at the O2 Academy in Bristol last Tuesday (the tour is not coming to Oxford) bouncing and they did not stop for almost an hour and a half.

We usually say bands are energetic on stage but NFG – now very much in middle-age for bands – did not stop moving. All night. Just bouncing up and down.

And the throne of hardest achilles in rock might sound silly. But get off your seat now and try bouncing up and down while you read the rest of this review.

It was not unlike taking the Duracell Bunny, giving him a good toot of snuff on top of a pint of Red Bull and pointing him towards the stage.

The initial impression was that lead singer Jordan Pundik would struggle not to be flat on a lot of his distinctive high-pitched notes but the complete package soon over-rode that concern as this relentless energy kept flowing off the stage throughout all 22 numbers.

The last time I reviewed New Found Glory was a couple of years back at Reading Festival.

  • My Friends Over You, from Sticks & Stones

They were on the main stage mid-afternoon and I said at the time they did not have the act to dominate that arena. It was like they were almost swallowed up.

The far more intimate environment of a packed out Bristol Academy was a much better setting.

Pundik was good value, Chad Gilbert was able to cover all guitar parts without former member Steve Klein being missed and drummer Cyrus Bolooki was solid. But for me bassist Ian Grushka drew most attention.

To be fair he's not got filmstar looks. The more unkind may liken him to a shirtless gobliny-creature, but he can beat out a hell of a rhythm on a bass.

Gilbert's guitar dominates but Grushka is both a subtle yet big part of the New Found Glory sound.

It's hard to dissect but at those big moments he hit the notes that added that oomphf that was needed. It wasn't overpowering or excessive. It was just right.

My Friends Over You, NFG's break-out hit of 2002, was undoubtedly the best received but all but the new album material had the pit replicating the on-stage bouncing.

Pop Punk may continue to draw sneers but the pulse is beating pretty fast and pretty heavy.

  • PS: And you're achilles aren't feeling that good right at the moment, are they?

  • Ready and Willing from the latest album, Resurrection 

  • It's Not Your Fault, from Coming Home
  • Sonny, from Sticks & Stones