Good Charlotte
w/ Millencolin and The Explosion
@ Nottingham Rock City
23-03-05
reviewed by lex

*****

Good Charlotte remind me of marmite. You either love them or hate them. Tonight they enter Nottingham for the first time to show what they’re made of.
But first we have two support acts to endure.
At first The Explosion were a promising bet. Their first song was a good punk track. Second song also good but as the set went on you tended to lose interest as there wasn’t that much variation in the sound.
‘Here I am’ was definitely the best song of their set and got the biggest applause.
It was a similar thing during Millencolin. In fact the best moment of their set came when the bass drum broke. Whilst people were rushing around trying to fix

it the singer was making up songs on the spot introducing the members of the band. A very funny moment.
I don’t like marmite... but I do like Good Charlotte. Unfortunately the venue was filled with kids (all of which looked younger than 14) who would scream at every possible moment.
The whole room erupted though as the band (minus Chris) entered the stage and launched head first into The Anthem.
It didn’t really matter what Good Charlotte did tonight, the audience would lap it all up anyway. But they didn’t do anything to disappoint anybody. Songs like ‘The Young and the Hopeless’, ‘Girls and Boys’, and ‘Hold On’ showed how great the old Good Charlotte was whereas ‘Chronicles Of Life and Death’, ‘The World is Black’ and ‘Walk Away’ boasted a set of new great songs.
There were times during the set when you couldn’t even hear Joel Madden sings as the crowd were all singing over him.
The band spoke easily to the crowd.
They finished with ‘Predictable’, ‘I Just Wanna Live’ and ‘Lifestyles Of The Rich and Famous’
I for one was sorry to watch them leave the stage.