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Thursday, May 04, 2017

LIVE REVIEW: Not just for dirtbags, teenage or otherwise Wheatus shine live


On a sunny Belfast evening I had the opportunity to re-live my youth as Wheatus played the Limelight in Belfast.

Wheatus, a pop rock band most well known for their hit ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ entertained a packed out Limelight with a mix of new songs and old favourites. They hit the big time around the same time as Sum 41 and Weezer and follow a similar style.
The crowd were eager to see Wheatus but most were pleasantly surprised by the support act- Michael; an electronic and experimental music group. In fact they are quite the discovery and one to watch for the future. Composed of three members including Mathew Milligan (the guitarist from Wheatus) they perfectly showcased their talents, even while using an ipad as their mix table.
Wheatus took the stage to rapturous applause and didn’t disappoint the crowd. Entertaining and amusing, stage presence is not lacking with this group. They played a good variety of new and older songs but the solos by Brendan B Brown were a highlight.

They brought a relaxed atmosphere to the Limelight and didn’t appear to be playing to a set playlist. They encouraged the crowd to shout out their requests (of course Teenage Dirtbag was requested more than once!) but fans were eager to hear songs from all seven of their albums including Holiday, Sunshine and Lullaby.

It was obvious that a large percentage of the crowd came for one that song. The great thing about Wheatus is they didn’t shy away from playing their most famous song; they embraced it. The crowd finally got what they had been waiting for at the end of the set. They had the crowd jumping and singing along and I am sure I wasn’t the only one picturing the famous music video for the track! They even performed a remixed version during their encore before saying goodnight with a final solo from Brown.

If you haven't seen Wheatus live I would recommend it. I was pleasantly surprised by their depth and back catalogue- they are much more than Teenage Dirtbags!

Review by Ahmed Al Sarraf
Pictures by Darren McVeigh



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