LAKE MALICE + THECITYISOURS + FAKEYOURDEATH – GREEN DOOR STORE, BRIGHTON 6.3.24
Brighton’s own Lake Malice kicked off their first UK tour on Wednesday with a hometown show at the Green Door Store, along with local duo fakeyourdeath and London-based act TheCityIsOurs.
The night kicked off with a 25 minute set from fakeyourdeath, playing primarily new material from their debut EP releasing within the next month. Coming on stage at 7:50pm, the crowd was a bit on the sparse side, yet the electronicore two-piece still delivered a brilliant performance. Beginning with last year’s single ‘Consume’, the duo ran through their slot with an unmistakable confidence, moving from one song to the next with no breaks or chatter in between until just before the final number. This created a striking stage presence, complimented by them being evidently well rehearsed as they moved through their repertoire without any mistakes while nailing abrupt finishes and sharp transitions between the multiple sections of each.
The four unreleased songs that comprised the bulk of the setlist displayed a lot of promise for their upcoming release: ‘Hell’ mixes deconstructed club beats with up-tempo rockier sections, while ‘Broken’ features a hooky industrial groove reminiscent of early Nine Inch Nails (appropriate for the song’s title). Each of their songs balanced electronic elements with live drums and vocals seamlessly, bolstered by a good sound mix and their striking stage presence, and so they are definitely a new act to watch out based on the strength of their first three singles and live performance.
fakeyourdeath setlist:
‘Consume’
‘Bodies’
‘Hell’
‘Broken’
‘Hello I’m Feeling Hostile’
‘Humanity’
‘Truth’
Next up was a 40 minute set from TheCityIsOurs, a melodic metalcore four-piece playing their first Brighton show in seven years. The band have a distinctly quirky yet energetic persona stage, embellished by vocalists Oli Duncanson and Mikey Page sporting outfits that answered the vitally important question “What if Bill and Ted were born a decade later?”. The crowd, which had filled out by this point, were very receptive to the onstage liveliness. Duncanson’s calls to bounce and stagedive to funky System of a Down-esque songs such as ‘Dangerous’ and ‘Violent’ (both from their 2021 sophomore album ‘COMA’) were met with enthusiasm from the audience. While the bands’ audience engagement was strong, their general vibe did feel a bit incongruent with the other two acts, leaning more towards pop punk/nu metal than their more austere and industrial aesthetic and material.
We approached the band for the setlist after their slot finished, but were told that they do not use one as “all the backing tracks play continuously”. We can confirm that the majority of the songs were from the ‘COMA’ album, accompanied with at least two songs announced to be new.
Finally, Lake Malice burst onto the stage with their dance-thrash song ‘Black Turbine’, accompanied by a giant inflatable pizza rising up from the audience and bouncing around the pit. The band, a guitar/vocals two-piece expanded on stage with a live drummer, have a feisty on stage energy, with vocalist Alice Guada engaging the crowd both with her frenetic performances and by addressing them between songs with messages about keeping gigs a safe space and watching out for others.
Their third song, an unreleased number provisionally titled ‘Scatty’, was preceded by Guada leading the crowd into a mantra of “mind, soul, body, beat” that forms the backbeat of the song, overlaid with uptempo gabber/hardstyle-esque drums reminiscent of acts such as Machine Girl and The Garden. After a few songs, the band took a brief offstage intermission before returning seamlessly for the second half, featuring songs such as last month’s single ‘Eternal December’; announced as being “about belonging”, this song combines skittering electronic drums reminiscent of jungle/jumpup drum ‘n’ bass with a pounding, melodic breakdown/chorus. The band played all tracks from their first EP release, last October’s ‘Post-Genesis’ across the set, finishing up with their debut single ‘Blossom’, with Guada imploring the crowd to bring back the inflatable pizza, which duly reappeared to be thrown around for the explosive final number.
The band are very tight on stage, with good dynamics and presence (amplified by Blake Cornwall’s exaggerated guitar-antihero stage moves), and well-mixed electronic components to their songs, particularly in the more bitcrushed hardystle-esque moments. In conclusion, the gig was a riotous evening and good value for money at only £13 for three upcoming acts.
Lake Malice setlist:
‘Black Turbine’
‘Bloodbath’
“Scatty” [new song]
‘Creepers’
‘Power Game’
(Interlude)
‘Magic Square’
‘Eternal December’
“NBUTBU” [new song]
‘Mitsuko’
‘Stop The Party’
‘Blossom’
