We Are The Ocean – The Waterfront, Norwich 31/01/13

We Are The Ocean, Yashin & Straight Lines
The Waterfront, Norwich – 31/01/13

We Are The Ocean embark on their first headline tour since the release of their 3rd album ‘Maybe Today, Maybe Tomorrow and Radio One ‘A’ play listing success of their latest single ‘ Young Heart’.

A near sell out crowd get themselves into position for openers Straight Lines (9/10) who return to Norwich after headlining the intimate Waterfront studio in October 2012. Opening with ‘Freaks Like Us’ the title track of their second album, they clearly mean business as they set about winning the crowd over and warming them up for the headliners.  The seven song set includes five songs from their latest offering, a blast from the past in ‘Antics’ and new song ‘Escapology’. Looking around it was clear that they had fans in the crowd as well as earning many more by the end of the night.

Yashin (8/10) clearly love playing Norwich with frequent references to when they last played here in March & November 2012. The floor erupts as they open up with ‘New Year or New York’. ‘Pushing Up Daisies’ leads to a moment of crowd participation with Harry Radford choreographing the masses to all spin on the spot, a unique variation on a circle pit. A poignant and serious message is delivered as they play ‘Stand Up’, with Radford dedicating the song to anyone going through a hard time right now. A surprise cover of Linkin Park’s ‘One Step Closer’ has the whole room bouncing. Tonight Yashin delivered a brutal seven song set that left the blood in my veins pumping in time with the heavy bass lines and my ears ringing like a fire alarm.

After catching our collective breaths the moment everyone has been waiting for arrives. We Are The Ocean (10/10) take the stage and launch straight into ‘Stanford Rivers’/’Bleed’, fists pump in the air and the crowd surges toward the stage.

Next up ‘Trouble Is Temporary, Time is Tonic’ & ‘What It Feels Like’ back to back serve to satisfy long standing fans of the band before a run of tunes flipping back and forth between old and new. ‘Golden Gate’ is a highlight amongst almost non stop highlights tonight with what feels and sounds like the entire Waterfront singing along. The last song as front man Liam Cromby announces is ‘The Road’ but of course the house lights not coming on is a sign of an eagerly anticipated encore. Cromby steps up and delivers

‘Chin up, son’ solo with further enthusiastic crowd sing a longs. A crowd favourite ‘Waiting Room’ sees the frequency of crowd surfers increase keeping the security busy but fans happy. The last song, this time for real is ‘Young Heart’ a fitting finish to a solid set “Do you see yourself in me? Have I made you proud?” Yes, We Are The Ocean, yes you have.

WATO treated us to a sixteen song set list tonight drawing heavily on their latest two releases as well as delving back into the archive and dusting off ‘(Never Felt This) God Damn Good’ from their debut EP. WATO were clearly pumped for tonight and relished the occasion. It struck me tonight how grounded WATO are, they clearly love what they are doing and at times during the performance you could see in their eyes how blown away they are by the support at the Waterfront tonight. The recent ‘A’ play listing of ‘Young Heart’ will surely propel them in to the big league, mark my words, WATO are future arena fillers.

http://www.wearetheocean.co.uk
http://www.facebook.com/theyashin
http://www.straightlinesband.com