THE MOVIELIFE BRING NEW LIFE TO THEIR 2003 CLASSIC ALBUM IN ANNIVERSARY SHOWS

21 YEARS OF ‘FORTY HOUR TRAIN BACK TO THE PENN’ | MANCHESTER CLUB ACADEMY 15/03 (support Crime in Stereo, Family Dinner)

It’s fair to say that you can’t beat a punk show in a sweaty basement on a Friday night. And what a line up too. Seasoned pop-punks, The Movielife took to Manchester Academy with support from Crime in Stereo and Family Dinner.

FAMILY DINNER

First up were Family Dinner and despite a fairly small crowd, they gave it their all as the opener. With their brand of shouty rock, they were clearly enjoying themselves and I don’t think I’ve seen a singer look so happy to be shouting into a microphone.

CRIME IN STEREO

The evening took a little bit of a dip with the next band up as Crime In Stereo struggled to keep the energy going in the room. They started off well with a batch of songs from their 2007 album ‘Is Dead‘ but followed this up with a new song from this years ‘House And Trance‘ followed by a fairly slow song, ‘Superyacht Ecopark‘ which really slowed their momentum. I think they actually realised they’d lost the crowd a little as they spoke to each other briefly on stage before ramping things back up again and finishing very strong with ‘Orbiter‘!

And then, it was time….

THE MOVIELIFE

Celebrating 21 years of their classic 2003 album ‘Forty Hour Train Back To Penn‘, The Movielife really got the place moving and it was clear everyone was here for the main event. Vinnie Caruana showed why he’s one of the best frontmen in the punk rock scene, and has been for over 20 years, moving almost non-stop around the stage, jumping into the front of the crowd and getting the entire room to sing along.

Opening with ‘Face Or Kneecaps‘ and ‘Jamestown‘ (the latter of which is normally kept for the end of their set), they got huge responses from the crowd during every song, with highlights including ‘Kelly Song‘, ‘Takin’ It Out‘ And ‘Chopping It Up‘, ‘Hey‘, ‘Jamaica Next‘ and ‘Ship To Shore‘. Sadly they omitted ‘Sailor Tattoos‘, which was the bonus track on the original album which they have been playing on some of their US dates celebrating the album.

Following the end of the album in full, The Movielife took things all the way back to the very early 2000s with songs from second album ‘This Time Next Year‘ and the follow up EP ‘Has A Gambling Problem’. I was convinced at one point they were going to play all of ‘This Time Next Year‘ as they ran through the first three tracks from that album before mixing it up a little. Including the likes of ‘I Hope You Die Soon’, ‘Pinky Swear‘, ‘Single White Female‘ and ‘Walking On Glass‘ in their set, The Movielife finished incredibly strong with the absolute banger that is ‘Hand Grenade‘.

It seemed not a single person left disappointed – hopefully The Movielife will be back in the UK in the future.

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Craig Harston

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