Alien Ant Farm at the Assembly Rooms

Formed in 1996, Alien Ant Farm hit the peak of their success with their second album, ‘Anthology’, their debut with a record label. Despite initially being labelled as nu-metal, the band’s sound is a mixture of alternative rock, metal, punk-rock and pop-punk. ‘Anthology’ included their hit cover of Michael Jackson’s ‘Smooth Criminal’, which was featured in American Pie 2 and the popular singles ‘Movies’ and ‘Attitude’. Capitalising on this success, this tour they have been playing ‘Anthology’ in its entirety.

Despite the Assembly Rooms being an intimate venue at a capacity of 1,000, the crowd felt quite sparse. The band made a humble entrance to the stage and dived straight into the music. It has now been 15 years since the release of ‘Anthology’, and as one would expect, Alien Ant Farm have greatly matured. While they still sound good, and the music is intrinsically enjoyable, their energy, or lack thereof, contrasted starkly with that of support act (həd) p.e.

The Californian band’s set, just before Alien Ant Farm’s, was an onslaught of an eclectic fusion of hip-hop, reggae, rap, heavy metal and punk rock. While the band came across as perhaps overly confident, and the majority of lyrics one could decipher from vocalist Jared Gomez’s growling concerned marijuana, their music was infectious. They had a great sound, they were evidently having a lot of fun and interacted with the crowd.

Image: Relux/Flickr

Nevertheless, Alien Ant Farm’s vocalist Dryden Mitchell’s performance felt thoughtful; he was evidently grateful to his audience and his heart was clearly in the music. The groove in Mitchell’s voice gave their music an edge. Their performance had the bittersweet twinge of nostalgia. Indeed, for many fans ‘Anthology’ was a formative album in their teenage years and the evening attracted an audience of a wide range of ages. ‘Movies’, arguably their best song, got the crowd moving, but as the energy died down, there was little interaction with the crowd. Despite a few dedicated fans at the front, the audience mostly seemed disengaged. Mitchell sweetly dedicated the song ‘Attitude’ to his mother. But the crowded didn’t really warm up again until the heavy ninth track, ‘Wish’, at which point a mosh pit was promptly formed.

In addition to the full album, during the encore the band played the welcome additions of ‘These Days’ and their mainstream success, ‘Glow’, both from their follow up to ‘Anthology’, ‘Truant’. The evening ended on a high with their riff heavy cover of ‘Smooth Criminal’. Overall the gig may not have been a memorable one, but Dryden Mitchell and his bandmates, Mike Cosgrove (drums), Terry Corso (guitar) Timmy Pee (bass) gave solid performances and Alien Ant Farm continue to bring out catchy music.