Motionless in White came to Cardiff for the first time just before Valentine’s Day, celebrating 20 years with their ‘Afraid of the Dark’ European tour and new single of the same name.
Make them Suffer were first up, and they got a lot of love from the crowd – particular shout-out to the guy moshing in a Cookie monster costume. Their thing is contrast and that was particularly epic live, with Sean taking the harsh vocals and Alex bringing in softer ones. Dayseeker was next and they were a more mellow follow up. They rolled through a pretty smooth set, which didn’t stir up as much excitement but was thoroughly enjoyable nonetheless.
Motionless in White started off their set strong with almost a whole minute of a spinning cat meme – then the band came out. Reader, the room went insane. It’s the first time they’ve played in Wales in 20 years of preforming and it was clearly long-awaited. They mostly played tracks from their most recent album, Scoring the End of the World, but threw
in a good mix of their classics. And of course, they also played their new song, Afraid of the Dark, released this January ahead of a promised album. Everyone already knew it word for word, of course. It’s an exploration of their 20 year journey to reach this tour and most of the people in the room have been with them for at least some of the trip. It was around this point I lost track of the cookie monster, but the Utilita is well set up for pyrotechnics so they might have got too hot and taken off the head.
From Sesame Street or not, the giant pride flag they threw up on the screens during Voices was a nice reminder that MIW are a safe space for all their fans – and almost 5000 came out to scream with them tonight. Slaughterhouse was also a favourite with the crowd, unrepentantly loud and perfect for a crowded arena. The atmosphere was awesome: everyone was excited for this show, including the band. It was a packed set but Chris ‘Motionless’ still found time to wonder why it had taken so long for MIW to make it to Cardiff – they did try to make up for it by bringing on a Welsh flag.
Motionless in White also made great use of the big screens behind and around the stage to establish a cinematic feel – they used some well put together videos of their name on a Universal studios style opening, and after that it felt like we got a movie reference for every new song. There was always something to look at, be it the band, the videos or the Cherry Bombs, who I have to mention. They’re an alternative dance troupe, who’ve played Download, toured with bands like In This Moment and Black Stone Cherry, and now they’ve joined MIW on tour to dance and throw around fire, and were so much fun to watch.
Spinning flaming sticks, throwing sparks, you name it – pyrotechnics were a bit of a theme for the night. They came out for the last time as MIW rounded off their set, throwing out roses to the crowd.
One thing was clear – Motionless in White, Cardiff is Eternally Yours.
Words by Jasmine Cooper
Image courtesy of Magnus Lunay via Unsplash. No changes have been made to the original image.
