17 long months since my last live gig. It’s been a long-time coming people, but live music is creeping back into our lives. And what better way to embrace the coming together of hundreds of music lovers than witnessing the new breed of rock’s chosen warriors, post lockdown in my favourite music venue the Brudenell Social Club.
In the wake of the BLM movement, Bob Vylan’s potent mix of noisy punk and grime was deemed too extreme for the music business, no record company would touch them, forcing the duo to self-release their debut EP ‘We Live Here’. Recorded in 2019, it’s an album of the times, and the themes of race hate, police brutality, angst and frustration are more relevant than ever.
But Bob Vylan have not had the chance to take this monster on the road, until now. This first headline tour is 14 dates across the UK, with two supports personally chosen by Bobby Vylan himself. This tour is part of the ‘Revive Live Tour’, in conjunction with The National Lottery. Basically, you buy a ticket and you can bring along a plus one, who can get in as long as they have a lottery ticket. A cool incentive to encourage people back to live shows.
Opener Zand warms things up nicely. Taking the laptop/singer duo format to weird new heights, Zand look and sound like the sort of band you would see in a bar during Blade Runner or Judge Dread. Breakbeats are triggered from a laptop by a girl whose face is obscured by an octopus wooly hat/mask combo. She twiddles knobs and her hair equal amounts, while doing awkward SoapGirls style dance moves. Stage front is Zand, the heavily tattooed, shaven headed singer in dayglo clothes croons dark electronic pop like some post-apocalyptic Shirley Manson.
Songs like ‘Freak’ and ‘Bald Bitch’ ooze confidence and empowerment from a non-binary artist who’s self-confessed ‘ugly pop’ is a step in the right direction.
Manchester’s Witch Fever are a headline act in the making. Their brand of post-punk, grunge-heavy rock is as mesmerizing and powerful as any band I have seen in recent years. Imagine L7, Killing Joke and Joy Division having a party in your basement and you’ll get somewhere close.
Diminutive singer Amy commands the stage and works the growing crowd like a pro. Whether she’s stage front hollering poetic missives like Patti Smith, crouched on her haunches on the precipice of the stage or down on the dancefloor amongst the soon to be new recruits of the church of Witch Fever, you won’t want to take your eyes off her.
The more than capable rhythm section hold the whole thing together, just. The hypnotic bass lines, the ferocious dirty riffs and the cool, hypnotic grooves are the what stand out. This band have songs that ebb and flow just right in the live environment.
It’s a dark and gothic tinged thrill of a set that could easily descend into crowd chaos in a smaller, hotter and tightly packed venue. Yet, here in a larger room, not yet filled to capacity, with the air con keeping things cool, Witch Fever bring some fire to the proceedings, and are certainly not out of their depth. The charismatic singer makes the most of her space and ends the set singing from the balcony between the bar and the dancefloor.
They look good, they sound good, and with an EP due for release before the end of the year, Witch Fever are certainly ones to watch.
“I heard you want your country back?…shut the fuck up!” sings Bobby Vylan with a union jack flag draped over his head, before launching himself into a frantic sold out Brudenell crowd, who then carry him above their heads for the entirety of ‘I Heard You Want Your Country Back’. It’s an image that will stay with me for a long time to come, an iconic moment in time that I hope someone captured with a camera. Behind him, drummer Bobbie pounds seven shades of shit out of his kit. We are just 2 songs into a 40-minute set, but who’s counting? With no guitars, other than samples triggered by the drummer, this is the new face of punk rock post pandemic. It’s ferocious and intense and it is called Bob Vylan.
Each song is a 2-minute burst of power and energy, delivered like a jack hammer to the senses, by a man in a boiler suit, with a mass of flailing dreads and eyes that could pierce a hole into your very soul, and the crowd lap it up. Bobby is not much over 6 feet tall, but on that stage, he was more like 10 feet tall! I have never seen one man dominate a stage that size with such ease and conviction.
The likes of ‘England’s Ending’ and ‘Northern Line’ are brutal live, the perfect and most relatable music right now for people to lose their inhibitions to and expel all their frustrations. I think the set lasted 40 minutes or so, but I wasn’t counting, as I was too busy watching the man give his all on that stage, and also avoiding the ensuing chaos created around me. Bobby split the crowd down the middle at one point to create a circle pit. Those in the know take two steps back before the younger and more energetic amongst us lose their shit for a moment in time. It is so good to witness scenes like this after so, so long.
For all the anger and riot-inciting lyrics, between songs Bobby seems a softie at heart. Cracking jokes, taking the piss out of his drummer and generally having a right laugh. The biggest cheers of the night are reserved for set closer ‘We Live Here’. If anyone (and there were plenty) had been reserving anything for a final bounce, then that opening riff was their calling. The place erupts one last time before Bobby invites everyone on his stage to join in a mass finale.
I couldn’t ask for a better return to doing what I love the most. Not only was tonight’s show part of a tour showcasing new and exciting UK talent, it will also probably be the gig of the year from an artist raging against the machine and breaking down musical and social barriers wherever he goes.
The t shirt at the merch stand stated “Bob Vylan Is Killing Punk Rock”, yet ironically, I truly believe Bob Vylan is the nearest thing to true punk rock in 2021. What he is preaching rings true and is so relatable to the growing hordes who are discovering just the tip of the iceberg of what this artist has to offer. Unchartered waters may lay ahead people, but they are exciting times nontheless.
Author: Ben Hughes
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