A strong contender for Gig of the Year, the London crowd went bonkers between the beer vats for The Bronx!
Oooh, this looks like it’s going to be a special one. The Bronx are currently in the middle of a tour of the UK’s arenas, as main support to Sum 41, playing to huge crowds who are mostly unfamiliar with the Los Angeles quintet. Tonight, though, they are very much in their natural environment – headlining at a small, sold-out venue, with no stage barrier, and on a Friday night to boot. If this gig was any more hotly anticipated, it’d boil over.
Oh, and it’s happening at a brewery! Signature Brew Blackhorse Road is an unlikely prince amongst venues, located in the middle of an industrial estate near Walthamstow. Go crazy to loud punk rock music whilst beer bubbles away in the huge vats next to you – what’s not to like?
Opening band Resuscitators deal in driving, melodic punk rock in a Menzingers vein, albeit with a bit of extra British venom. The likes of ‘Every Party Needs A Healer’ and ‘At The Bottom’ manage the trick of sounding anthemic but not overblown, and the band themselves are clearly thrilled to be supporting one of their own favourite bands tonight. Kudos to them for giving away free copies of their ‘Pretend It’s Not Over’ EP, which is also available online, and is well worth a listen.
A great set, but perhaps not quite as unhinged as we’d ideally like? How fortunate, then, that Haggard Cat are up next. The duo rip through their set sounding like they’ll end the night feasting on the carcass of some unsuspecting passer-by, with the seismic riffs of opener ‘First Words’ hitting us with all the force of a tidal wave, and a raging ‘Quit Your Job’ delivered with almost thrash metal intensity. By the time they finish with an utterly feral cover of Nirvana’s ‘Territorial Pissings’, there are stirrings in the pit, and we are well and truly ready for whatever may happen next.
Does The Bronx vocalist Matt Caughthran have any other setting besides ‘stoked’? He’s quite the master of ceremonies, and his enthusiasm is infectious; you get the impression that, even if this show had been woefully under-attended, he and his band would still have rocked out for the sheer joy of it, and that goes a long way to explain why The Bronx are still so loved after more than twenty years together.
Tonight, they play one of the most high-octane, frenetic and downright electrifying sets we’ve seen in ages. By now, the venue is packed to the rafters, and from the moment the band kick off with ‘White Shadow’, chaos ensues both onstage and off – hardcore punk n’ roll mayhem at its finest. Of course, ‘Heart Attack American’ (the song that started it all!) soon cranks things up a notch, the pit absolutely seething as Caughthran succumbs to temptation and jumps into to join us. As when we saw The Bronx support Rancid at Wembley Arena last year, he’s quite the punk rock personal trainer, constantly encouraging us to do better and go crazier – and believe us, we’re more than happy to oblige.
Incidentally, a huge chunk of credit goes to the crowd. There’s no macho bullshit in sight tonight; indeed, there are plenty of women among the steady stream of stagedivers, and there’s a sense that everyone’s looking out for each other, even as they go as nuts as possible in an (ultimately triumphant) effort to make this a night to remember. It’s hard not to feel sorry for the folks loitering at the back as a furious ‘Knifeman’ and ‘Six Days A Week’ incite mass bouncing, crowd-surfing and a sea of pumping fists.
As ‘Around The Horn’ draws things to a steaming, sweat-drenched end, it occurs to us that they may as well cancel Bonfire Night this year, because all the fireworks in London aren’t going to go off half as spectacularly as this show has. Truly, The Bronx are a band whose belief in their fans is more than reciprocated, and this connection has resulted in a late contender for Gig Of The Year. We probably won’t see them again for quite a while, but neither they nor tonight will be forgotten in a hurry. Gentlemen, you did yourselves proud.
Catch The Bronx on tour back in California next month – dates below!
Main Photo Credit: ROSE MORRISON
Dec 5, 2024 – The Echo, Los Angeles, CA
Dec 6, 2024 – The Echo, Los Angeles, CA (MARIACHI EL BRONX)
Dec 14, 2024 – Belly Up, Solana Beach, CA
Dec 15, 2024 – Belly Up, Solana Beach, CA (MARIACHI EL BRONX)
Dec 20, 2024 – The Independent, San Francisco, CA
Dec 21, 2024 – The Independent, San Francisco, CA (MARIACHI EL BRONX)
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I spend my days teaching English to foreign students, and my evenings attending as many gigs as possible. Raised mainly on a diet of 90s third-wave punk, my tastes have grown to include just about anything from trad ska to thrash metal. The Ramones are my musical gods.
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