BOB VYLAN + WITCH FEVER + ZAND – THE HOPE & RUIN, BRIGHTON 11.8.21
Afro-punk, Grime-punk, whatever you want to call them, the two Bobby’s that make up The London duo, Bob Vylan, are hardcore punk rock and are here to deliver a message from London town and rock the f*ck out of the sold-out Hope And Ruin crowd.
Thanks to the fine team at Lout promotions, we get to witness that energy ourselves in Brighton as part of the 18 date ‘We Live Here’ tour, after their previous Brighton show, part of The Great Escape Festival went by the wayside due to the lockdown in England.
The duo’s album ‘We Live Here‘ was released initially via Bandcamp only, sidestepping the DSPs (digital streaming platforms). It was a stance against the throwaway culture we have now and again put a monetary value to music, to someone’s artistic creation. It’s a move that has done them no harm, selling out over 250 vinyl in just a few hours, upon its initial release and becoming Louder Than War’s No.2 album of 2020 and their No.1 single with ‘We Live Here‘.
Bob Vylan now have finally got the chance to get back in the trenches and drop hard, fast shows across the country.
Bob Vylan has also brought two other acts along with them on the tour and the first, ZAND, kicked off the night’s entertainment in style.
Delivering deliciously sick and twisted genre-bending sounds for the Hope and Ruin crowd. It’s hard to take your eyes off ZAND’s vocalist ‘Zander Sweeney’, a captivating performer with a distinct look of a shaven, heavily tattooed head with little green devil horns and a devilishly bittersweet voice to match.
Seriously recommend checking out ‘Luci’ and ‘Slut Money’ from the ‘Ugly Pop’ EP. Musically they bridge the gap between alt-rock and electro-pop. Think SKYND partying with Lil Peep and Britney Spears.
Find ‘Ugly Pop’ EP HERE and check out the Instagram page HERE.
Zand setlist:
‘Bald Bitch’
‘Luci’
‘Religion’
‘Scared Of Me’
‘Boys Like U’
‘Freak’
‘Inappropriate’
‘Slut Money’
Manchester noise punks ‘Witch Fever‘ next take the stage. Alex Thompson, Alisha Yarwood, Amy Walpole and Annabelle Joyce make up this solid four-piece of drums, guitar, bass and vocals. Coming across like Black Sabbath playing punk rock, these four get ‘The Hope’ crowd jumping from the start till the end of a sweaty, energetic and lively seven-song set, which included their new single ‘In The Resurrect’.
Their vocalist was spending as much time in the pit as onstage. No wonder they’ve been picked to support IDLES on the upcoming tour.
I’d listened to a few tracks before tonight, but the songs truly come to life in a live setting. Check Witch Fever out at your earliest opportunity at a venue near you. Their forthcoming six track EP ’Reincarnate’ will drop on 15th October, with the vinyl edition hitting the independent record stores on 3rd December.
Grab your Witch Fever merch HERE.
Witch Fever setlist:
‘Bloodlust’
‘In The Resurrect’
‘Market’
‘I Saw You Dancing’
‘Bully Boy’
‘Congregation’
‘Reincarnate’
You can feel the excitement and tension in the already sticky crowd as the countdown starts for the appearance of Bob Vylan. We get a guitar loop that plays for what feels like forever (actually, it’s around 10 minutes!), but this only gets the packed crowd more and more worked up for finally the appearance of the two Bobby’s on the venue stage.
The stage is bare except for a drumkit, the piece of kit for the backing track and a mike stand which is put safely to one side. Things are about to kick off, on and off stage, and with the opening notes of ‘Down’, it does just that. Frontman Bobby is like a cyclone, spinning from one side of the stage to the other and then into the pit.
I’m not sure where the grime-punk tag comes from, as these guys are 100% hardcore punk rock. They’ve more in common with the likes of Crass, Minor Threat and Youth Of Today than any Grime acts I can name.
Everyone gets a battering from the sharp tongue of the frontman, The Monarchy, The Police and even Yuppies. Material for tonight comes from both of their releases, so along with ‘Down’, we get to hear ear-shattering, stage battering versions of ‘Run Up’, ‘Die Slow’ and a crowd-pleasing ‘We Don’t Care’ with everyone joining in on the chorus from their debut EP ‘Dread’. But the majority of the set comes from the later release with one new track thrown in for good measure, ‘Pretty Songs’, and it’s a belter!
Standouts tonight, the whole damn set, but ‘I Heard You Want Your Country Back’ is just immense coming on like a young angry Rage Against The Machine playing The Beastie Boys turned up to 11.
A delirious run-through of ‘Northern Line’ hits harder than a punch in the face, and finally, the one that everyone was waiting for, ‘We Live Here’. The frontman’s eyes burn with rage as he spits forth the diatribe of his racial abuse as a child in London, and it’s like a bomb going off in the crowd with bodies bouncing off the walls and each other for one final slam of the night. Bobby invites everyone that can get on stage to join him for the finale, and they do. The stage is a heaving, sweaty mass of bodies, and it all ends with a massive group hug just as it should.
Bobby Vylan’s music is subversive, sometimes violent but with a powerful message against police brutality and racism. If you’re a fan of punk rock bands like IDLES, Youth Of Today and Crass or any of the other mentioned bands, you should listen to Bob Vylan’s EP’s and get and see them live as soon as you can. The way things are going, I can’t see them playing this size of venue for much longer as these boys are only going in one direction, up!
Bob Vylan setlist:
‘Down’
‘I Heard You Want Your Country Back’
‘England’s Ending’
‘Die Slow’
‘Run Up’
‘Northern Line’
‘Save Yourself’
‘CSGB’
‘Merch Stand’
‘Pulled Pork’
‘We Don’t Care (It Ain’t Safe)’
‘Pretty Songs’
‘We Live Here’
