Augustines, Sage, Gateshead
- Written by Lee Hammond
Hailing from New York City, with a second album recently released and a slight change of name, Augustines are back and it seems they’re on point. In perhaps one of the most impressive venues in the country, this evening sees Billy, Eric and Rob take to the stage in what Billy dubs as a ten-sided space ship.
It’s immediately evident that Augustines are in brutal form opening with the awesome ‘Headlong Into The Abyss,’ from their debut Rise Ye Sunken Ships. They closely follow this up with another track from their debut, ‘Chapel Song’. It's undoubtedly a crowd favourite and it’s the first of many huge sing along moments that litter this evening's set.
The set moves along at quite the pace and it's safe to say that the new self-titled album brings in something of a more rounded sound than their debut. They’ve moved on, the songs are filled with bigger choruses, and the venues on this tour have more hands in the air moments. They’re begining to encroach on the territory occupied by Bruce Springsteen and The Killers, almost every other track exhibiting the same kind of anthemics as the aforementioned.
They temper this with beautiful tracks from Rise Ye Sunken Ships, and litter the set with stories, ad libs and brilliant interludes between the songs, even making up a song about Costa coffee. Augustines are a band who look to be having an amazing time and they feed off the crowds energy. However, something is not quite right with Billy throughout the set, and he divulges to this sell out crowd that it is in fact some literature.
The literature in question is about the American prison system, his brother is currently in prison in America - much of Rise Ye Sunken Ships is based around Billy’s pain. This literature seems to have ignited these feelings and when Billy dedicates ‘Book Of James’ to his brother, he is physically moved by the emotion of the track and with that, the band leaves the stage before being chanted out.
After apologising for the depressing turn that the set had taken, the band are all set to continue, Billy discarding his microphone as they play a couple of tracks completely stripped back. Clearly warmed by the love being exhibited by tonight’s crowd, the band join the crowd for the rest of the show which continues for another half hour, playing numerous tracks including a cover of The Clash’s ‘Guns Of Brixton’.
Tonight has been a true one-off. We've witnessed Augustines a number of times before and never before have we seen this amount of emotion from the band, thus making this evening particularly special. Albeit a not-always-pleasant reasons, this evenings crowd truly embrace Billy and his band mates, and we hope it won't be too long before we can share an evening with Augustines again.