CAST- O2 ACADEMY LIVERPOOL - 21ST DECEMBER 2024 CONCERT REVIEW
CAST were a phenomenal band in the studio and on the road in the height of Britpop in the 1990s and their sell out Christmas show at the Liverpool O2 this weekend easily proved that nothing has changed.
John Powe ripping into "flying" at their sell out gig in the O2
I arrived outside the venue roughly half an hour before doors opened. There was only about 3 people infront of us but the queue filled up rapidly and by 7 o’clock there was a fairly big queue of cold Cast fans waiting eagerly to get in the warm. Once the stage was set up, support act “Silent k” took to the stage in all white attires and played one of the best support sets I’ve seen in a while, it was a really unique and high energy set, easily getting the audience in good spirits. As homage to former La’ John Power of CAST they covered Lee Mavers song “I can’t sleep” by The La’s in their own way which was a breath of fresh air from usual covers trying to fully replicate usual La’s songs and not entirely achieving Lee’s charm of the original.
During the break between Silent K and CAST, the speakers got the sold out O2 crowd banging out songs of Richard Ashcroft and Oasis (very unsubtle reference to the reunion next year, fair enough to them though, it got the atmosphere up massively). After singing along with the packed room to the Gallaghers’ “some might say” the lights went down and to a cosmic tune through the speakers, on walked Skin, John, Jay and Keith to open with hit “Sandstorm”.
Guitarist "Skin" Tyson during opener "Sandstorm"
John played a highly energetic set with 90s classics like “flying” and “fine time” then played their latest classics of their top tier 2024 album love is the call. They then proceeded to slow it down and give the packed, bouncing crowd a breather by playing acoustic belters like “I’m so lonely” and then played a rendition of “Walkaway” almost identical to the 1996 original if not better, dare I say. They then played the energetic “Free me” to get the crowd singing again before they left for the encore, leaving bassist Jay jamming along to a phenomenal drum solo by Keith (Moon) O’Neil.
Energetic drummer Keith playing "Fine Time" alongside the rubber chickens and dinosaurs attached to the kit.
John and Skin returned to the stage to play “Starry Eyes” then followed with a psychedelic break giving the audience a sense of mystery on what was to come next…
Out of nowhere Skin threw his pick on the floor carelessly and began shredding the intro to “history” (my favourite of theirs, purely because of how great skin is at tapping the main, part through his delay guitar pedal).
Skin, John, Keith and Jay, slowly building up to the main synth-like riff of "history"
To finish off this great set, John gave a humble closing speech, thanking the audience for letting them continue to tour in popularity, “we never take for granted all of the support we get from you's selling out venues like this” said John before introducing their closing song, all change classic, “alright”. The song filled the full band with energy and the audience bouncing and singing along without missing a word. Just as they left the stage the band put their arms around each other and took in the sold out crowd for one final time before John gave his pick out to my friend as the band walked off.
As soon as the stage hands came on I knew I was set on getting skins setlist and after a lot of admittedly desperate sounding shouting, I did not walk out empty handed.
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