Live Review :: Otherkin :: The Hope & Ruin, Brighton - Oct 29 2017

Live

Otherkin

The Hope & Ruin, Brighton

October 29 2017

Words/Pictures: Steve Willcox

When I walk into The Hope & Ruin fairly late into the evening to catch headliners Otherkin, I am expecting the venue to be rammed. Surprisingly, I find I am in the company of just a small select bunch of no more than 20 people - until with five minutes until the band were to take to the stage, a whole horde of revellers started to mill through the door like a buffalo stampede and soon took over the floor.

Everything goes quiet and suddenly an air raid siren goes off signalling the arrival of Dublin's garage punks. As the four appear from the back and mount the stage that is awash with a deep red hue of lighting, the first noticeable thing is they're all sporting matching black and white coloured for Halloween, which gives them an added air of a modern version of The Addams Family.

Vocalist Luke Reilly kindly thanks the crowd for coming and asks everyone to step forward. With the front rows nicely filled, he blasts off with a scream of "one, two, three, four" and launches into ‘Bad Advice’. with its hooks and thrashing guitars that sets the floor alight already - and this is only the first song in!

Next up ‘I Was Born’ starting with Conor Wynne’s’ distorted guitar riffs that moves this song along and straight into its steam train drum beats and vocals. Both the catchy ‘Treat Me So Bad’ and the Irishpop equivalent of a Britpop rocker, ‘Come On, Hello’, are well received and see some early moshing going on at the front. 'Enabler’ brings some heavy rock into the crowd and making full use of the big drums from Rob Summons and the strumming bass of David Anthony. It slows the set down slightly so that the people can catch their breath for the next charge.

‘Razorhead’ is where the party gets crazy, with nearly the whole front row going mental with moshing and bumping into everyone. I get the feeling these guys love getting the crowd active at their gigs with Luke regularly stepping into the middle of mosh just to add to the excitement.

The microphone goes into the crowd during the raucous, energy charged 'Ay Ay’, and relishing the chance to get in on the act they respond with the chorus chant, by now being well versed in the words to this 2015 breakout single. What this band brings to the genre is the wild side of indie, like BlackWaters and The Shimmer Band. They are a great live band that brings their love of the music home to the fans with gusto and energy that’s not often seen.

Ending on crowd pleaser, the five-minute-plus of shredding guitar and Luke's unrelenting vocal onslaught that is ‘So So’ -(
well, the title is, but believe me in practice this is more than so-so - it's dynamite - this band has gained a lot of fans tonight just through sheer bloody mindedness and banging tunes. As they make for Europe after this show, we can only urge that you buy a ticket for wherever they are. You won’t want to miss Otherkin. Believe me.