Live Review: You Me At Six – Celebrating 10 Years Of Cavalier Youth – The Guildhall, Portsmouth

I feel the rock world’s heart collectively died a little upon the recent announcement of You Me At Six’s upcoming break-up in 2025. The end is here, but not quite yet. It’s with this newfound knowledge that we find ourselves tagging onto the intimate “10 Years Of Cavalier Youth” Tour across the UK, hoping to get as much as we can from the band before the lights go down for the final time. Joined at Portsmouth Guildhall by emo upstart Call Me Amour, and alternative rockers Deaf Havana, here’s what went down at the start of the end.

This might have been Call Me Amour’s first show in Portsmouth, but that didn’t scare them one bit, with singer Harry Radford jumping into the crowd during ‘LA LA’. The band showed some excellent stage presence and interacted well with the audience that’d turned up early enough to catch them. While the set might have felt short, it perfectly displayed what the band are about and gave a good showcase of where they’re heading. From the crowd’s reaction, this won’t be the band’s last visit to the seaside town. I can’t wait to check them out again at their first and only headline show of 2024 at The Underworld in September.

Returning to Portsmouth for the first time since 2019, Deaf Havana would be next to take to the stage. The band felt like a fitting choice for this show, having joined You Me At Six on the road for the original ‘Cavalier Youth’ tour. There’s something somewhat ballsy about starting out your set with your most popular track, but it worked well for the band’s set, with ‘Trigger’ capturing the attention of the room and not leaving anyone eagerly waiting for the rest of the set. This worked well and moments such as fan favourite ‘Sinner’ seemed to go down very well. ‘Kids’ even saw the crowd doing a clap-along, which felt like the room was getting on board with the band.

Veering on being veterans of the scene at this point, although also having some line-up changes under their belt, the band showed no signs of their performance dwindling, as they showed off their skills seamlessly jumping from track to track as they went through their discography spanning set.

As the lights turned down, the anticipation in the room was palpable. With the news of You Me At Six’s upcoming disbandment fresh in the minds of the audience, it was clear that for the rest of the night, no one in the Portsmouth Guildhall was going to take this show for granted. As the silhouettes of the band started to appear (backed by an extended intro for ‘Room To Breathe’), cheers would build, reaching a high with the entrants of Josh Franceschi. ‘Room To Breathe’ would give fans their first taste of ‘Cavalier Youth’, before seamlessly going into ‘Fresh Start Fever’.

With the show not being exclusively about ‘Cavalier Youth’, the band played fan favourite ‘Reckless’ cheekily blending the outro with The Killers’ ‘When You Were Young’. This song saw the crowd getting into the swing of things jumping around and giving all the energy they could. It might have been a Sunday night, but the crowd tried their best to forget about the looming Monday morning and let loose while they could.

It didn’t matter whether the band were playing songs from ‘Cavalier Youth’ or anything else spanning through their entire 20 year music catalogue, the audience were happy to party down, singing, moving, and moshing around, making the night not only a celebration of the old, but equally championing the new. Towards the end of the set a teaser of a UK tour in February-April next year went down well with the audience, especially when asked if they want the band to come back down to the South Coast again.

From start to end, this was a great show, from Call Me Amour’s memorable first appearance in Portsmouth and Deaf Havana’s return to the city, right through to You Me At Six’s set that shared music from across the band’s releases. You Me At Six might be coming to the end of their time as a band but they’re sure not done yet, still putting every effort in to give fans the best shows possible.

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