Lostprophets

“Are you ready to sing?” demanded Lostprophets frontman Ian Watkins as the band prepared to launch into hit single The Fake Sound of Progress at the LCR last night. “Me too”, he replied, after 1500 screaming fans said they were.

From then on the crowd became a single, euphoric entity, singing every word to every song and leaping around the dance floor as if their lives depended on it.

The Welsh rockers belted out a series of songs guaranteed to get even the most hardened cynic jumping and wondering why Watkins chose to dismiss nu-metal as “just for kids” when he appeared to enjoy it as much as anyone else there.

He treated the crowd as if they were his personal friends and grinned uncontrollably.

Highlights included the latest single Last Train Home from new album Start Something, with its anthemic chorus providing a respite from the aural hammering of the rest of the gig.

The song everyone had come to hear (and which the fans demanded throughout) Shinobi vs Dragon Ninja, owner of one of the most powerful guitar riffs in history, elicited a huge roar and somehow managed to double the intensity of the already heaving crowd.