Music
Review
You Me At Six bid farewell at Wembley Arena
Sentimentality swelled as the Weybridge rock outfit end their 20 career with a swan song at The Final Night of Six
Tonight, Wembley Arena is a house of memories. It’s also a crematorium. This is the last stage You Me At Six are going to perform on after twenty years, eight albums and thousands of gigs as a band, solidifying their legacy as one of British rock’s true heroes. The Weybridge quartet have been the sound to the coming-of-age of a whole generation of emos living in rundown, middle-of-nowhere British towns and everyone packing out Wembley is eager to relish the fun while it still lasts. Anthemic yet earnest, emotional yet grounded, they may have been rockstars, but crucially, they were also everymen.
Under a canopy of lurid lights and a giant VI neon sign, You Me At Six kick off their highlights reel of hits with the epic ‘Room To Breathe’, giving an arguably underrated cut its moment to soar. For the first half of their two-hour set, the pendulum swings from energetic to emotional and back again, from the devilishly raucous ‘Loverboy’ to the cathartic ‘Stay With Me’, yet the energy never dips. Even songs from past eras that have never quite reached those heights of popularity – the danceable ‘Straight To My Head’, or the bullish blues rock of ‘Night People’ (with a goofy ‘We Will Rock You’ introduction) – are greeted with open arms. While they might not have always been able to get away with playing for two hours, for tonight, it works. Buoyed by a renewed sense of enthusiasm from band and crowd alike, there’s never a dull moment – and plenty of room to appreciate just how many solid gold tunes (and deep cuts alike) they did contribute to the canon of British alternative music.
As the night goes on, the sentimentality swells. Something about the majestic ‘Fresh Start Fever’ feels heavier tonight – its “Welcome to the future/Dream a little bigger,” hook might seem ironic at a farewell show, but it’s a reminder of You Me At Six’s members each entering their own, separate new eras. Later, there are dorky one-liners from frontman Josh Franceschi (“We invite you to our favourite part of the show… it’s called the mosh-pit), a hilarious retelling of the band’s formation (complete with guitarist Max Helyer belting two long “FUCK YEAAAAHS”) and a wholesome fans-on-shoulders moment for a beautiful ‘Liquid Confidence (Nothing To Lose). Bassist Matt Barnes even gets in the crowd and joins in while he’s not needed on stage, blowing a kiss to his partner in the stands.
It’s brought home with an uproarious encore of ‘Bite My Tongue’, ‘Reckless’ and a biblical ‘Underdog’, for which Franceschi tells the punters to “stand for your national anthem”. It’s a statement delivered not with arrogance – that’s never been they’re still – but presented as a matter of fact. And fact it is, when the crowd scream it with everything they have, knowing they may well never get to do it in front of the band that created it again. They’re ending on a skyscraping high not just in terms of how well they’ve performed, but how much they’re loved. So long, guys, and thanks for all the tunes.
