As I left the office in Bristol and headed towards the station to get a train to Cardiff, it started to snow, not the gentle flakes that you see in romantic comedies, it was snowing hard, the sort of snow that, after a few hours could cause potential issues to public transport routes. Would this cause any issues for tonight’s show, I crossed my fingers, stuck my beanie on and strode onward.

Luckily, the weather cleared up, must have been a passing snow shower, it was now a nice sunny evening but COLD, 2 degrees as I recall which did nothing to keep me warm as I stood on platform 3 waiting for the train to Cardiff Central. I saw others who were clearly off to gigs in Cardiff, trying to work out if they were there for IDLES or the BBC Radio 6 Festival was fun and as I stood to alight at Cardiff, I got chatting to a young guy who was actually playing a show in Cardiff later in the evening, forgive me as I have completely forgotten the name of his band, it won’t come to me and it’s not on the tip of my tongue so move on.

As I stood outside the station, trying to get my bearings, I enlisted the support of Google Maps to deliver me safely to my IBIS Budget hotel which would act as my surrogate home for the next 12 hours.

I made my way into the city and followed the signs to the Motorpoint Arena. What I like about Cardiff is that all the road signs are twice the size of ones in England, above the usual spelling was some strange looking words which appeared alien to me but when you compared them to their English counterparts, they sort of made sense, begs the question why the Welsh even need their own language really!

After a bit of a ‘to do’ at the box office, they had me down as Rob Muscutt not Steve Muscutt, Rob being my older brother’s name but as my driving license says Steve Muscutt, they were reluctant to let me have my ticket and pass…..as if anyone would bother showing up to a concert with a bag full of camera gear if they WEREN’T on the list for a photo pass….anyway, all was good, everyone remained professional and after a very thorough bag search, I was in.

The venue appeared way bigger than when I saw Iron Maiden there in 2006, I’m sure it wasn’t and I can’t even use the excuse that I was a lot smaller back then as I would have been fully grown. The thing that concerns me most about large arenas is the sound, especially with a high ceiling, would it be bouncing around the place like an echo chamber? We would have to wait and see.

The support act were a Welsh female trio called ADWAITH, they played a great set full of grunge tinged alt/rock which kept the audience engaged throughout. Dressed in white, they reminded me of the Droogs from ‘A Clockwork Orange’ but clearly much better at playing their respective instruments than inflicting a bit of the old ‘ultra violence’ on innocent passers by.

As well as receiving the accolade of KEXP Song of the Day for their track ‘ETO’, they’re also involved in the BBC Radio 6 Music Festival which is taking over Cardiff this weekend, great to see local talent getting noticed on a national scale for once.

Catch the band on their ‘Nid Aur’ tour in April where they’ll be belting out some new material as well as some of their ‘oldies’, hey’ll be playing in Cardiff, Carmarthen, London and Swansea, more info can be found on their socials.

After a short break to relive bladders and clear the stage for the main act, the lights dipped, up went a roar from the crowd and everyone’s fave boy band from Bristol took to the stage for what would be a mammoth career spanning 2 hour set, like a roller coaster, there will be highs and lows, you will give love and be loved by the band and the mass that had congregated at this sonic temple to witness their heroes in action.

It was dark in the photo pit and them bloody strobe lights weren’t helping, meaning I was bumping into speakers and other photographers but everyone was in the same boat!

The set kicked off with ‘Colossus’, their staple opener, the band trudged through the early section of the song before it started to get gnarly. Bowen and Lee were throwing themselves around the stage, Joe stamped his feet and looked menacing whilst Dev and Jon kept the backline nice and tight. At the right point, Joe (aka Moses) parted the crowd and invited everyone to ‘be nice and look after anyone who falls’ before unleashing 45 seconds of fury into the Cardiff arena. I was destroyed by the end of it and I wasn’t even in the pit…..

As I said above, we were presented with a 2 hour set spanning all four of their studio albums, for me, it was the more upbeat crowd pleasing tracks such as ‘Mr Motivator’ that got the room pumped but it was also wonderful to hear tracks from Brutalism being given an airing, especially ‘Mother’, ‘Faith in the City and ‘Divide and Conquer’ which sounded as raw and tribal as it did the first time I saw them perform it in Exeter in 2017.

Newer offerings from their latest long player ‘Crawler’ made their way onto the setlist but dare I say it, didn’t have the same impact as the older material. Don’t get me wrong, the experience of listening to ‘Crawler’ is far more rewarding than other albums but for some reason, for me, the tracks just didn’t carry as well as I would have hoped in their live show.

The time came for ‘Love Song’ and everyone was joking that it would actually be a 90 minute set with a 30 minute rendition of this track thrown in the middle to act as an intermission for anyone needing a drink or a wee! As the track came to the mid-section, Bowen stood on the barrier and belted out a load of songs by Welsh bands and artists including Catatonia, The Manics, Stereophonics, Tom Jones (What’s new Pussycat) and Sinead O’Connor (I thought she was Irish)…..Joe broke the spell by coming in with Mariah Carey’s ‘All I want for Christmas is You’ before the band came crashing back in to finish off the song, epic is an understatement!

As the night wore on, the classics came thick and fast, crowd pleasers such as ‘Television’, ‘War’, ‘The New Sensation’ and ‘I’m Scum’ did what was asked of them and kept the room bouncing along nicely. For a band that never have and never will do encores, the room knew that we were 23 tracks in and the finishing line was in sight, but which tracks would take them there? A surprise to some saw ‘Danny Nedelko’ as the penultimate number followed by the classic ‘Rottweiler’ which took over the arena come the end with all members on the floor, twiddling pedals, conjuring feedback and other ungodly sounds as the room lit up with smiling faces and satisfied eardrums.

For many people (me included), this show had been a long time coming and to be treated to a 25 track set covering the creme de la creme of their studio catalogue was immense, it was certainly an event that will long remain in the memories of attendees for years to come.