Midweek gigs are usually a bit hit and miss, but The Marble Factory in Bristol tonight was full to the rafters with the long-awaited headline tour from electronic metal/rock duo Wargasm at another one of their sold-out gigs.
There was already a gargantuan queue at the merch stand with the venue laced with devoted fans already standing in their place for the night; an obvious sign it was going to be one hell of a night.
Knife Bride
First on stage were Knife Bride; a five-piece based in the lively city of Brighton immersed on the stage drenched in smoke at 7.30 pm on the dot.
You’d expect with the recognised bands that are to follow, that the band who refer to their sound as ‘glitter pop slut metal’ would be having wedding night fears, but in all honesty, Knife Bride held their weapons in their hands and stuck it in. Mollie Clack launched her vocals to the back of the Marble Factory with Saturn V power and wore her heart on her left knee. The whole band were as tight as the lid on a new jar of chillies. You couldn’t help but love the noticeable confident nature of the keyboard player and her burlesque move whilst the drummer pounded out almost 808 blips with the rim shot, reminiscent of a younger version of The White Buffaloe’s drummer ‘The Machine’. This band are definitely marked in one mental flip card filing system under ‘watch them’ – we’ll be seeing them again.
https://www.facebook.com/knifebride
Scene Queen
The venue was nicely warmed up as there was a quick changeover for the next band, Queen Scene aka Hannah Collins; who rose to fame on the ever-used TikTok for her ‘Bimbocore’ subgenre of metalcore.
The American singer had her subjects in for some enthusiastic audience particip’swear’pation as she held the stage with an applaudable lack of fear and unfaltering drive. Who didn’t dig the pink feather bowers dressing the drum kit; an obvious foreshadowing of what was to be the campaign ahead? For anyone who’s never witnessed Scene Queen on stage, you wouldn’t expect a cover of Katy Perry’s ‘I kissed a girl’ to be thrown into their set. But Seattle’s Scene Queen through the gay grenade into the mosh bunker and why the fuck not. Her insistence that‘ ass clapping’ was to follow and “I wanna see those turtle necks” was the battle cry. Her faithful audience just about obliged their pink queen and were nicely worked up into a sweat as she paraded in the pit before joining a few fans for a more intimate show. Scene Queen sure knew how to party.
https://www.facebook.com/scenequeenrocks
Wargasm
As the audience waited in anticipation, grabbed another beer and wiped the sweat from their brow Wargasm’s guitarist Edison Hunter hit the stage followed by their latest drummer, Adam Breeze, from the recently departed rock band Raveneye. Adam of course is no stranger to the band having already played with Wargasm’s Sam Matlock in another life.
Having spoken to some of the faithful fans prior to Wargasm taking the stage, it seemed that some had travelled up from Reading uni and others brandishing painted faces, were from the City of Bath. There was also a group outside who were practically family to the band and one had a tattoo on her arm with some of Wargasm’s lyrics – all freshly decorated for the evening ahead.
Sam and Milkie paraded on stage, blasted out with a tirade of enviable crowd abuse, playing songs that drew from the need for noise, and stage dived like fuckless dolphins. Hitting the audience with their infamous tracks such as Pyro Pyro and Lapdance, Milkie remarked that she was thankful that the crowd managed to grapple her to safety with the amount of baby oil she had on; she wasn’t wearing much else, but who needs a frock when you’re wearing fireproof blonde attitude.
With angelic vocals, she’s like the devil drawing Taylor Swift to the inner sanctum of hell and regurgitating her back out as a raging platinum fuck demon. As for Sam, he was like Damien Thorn in The Omen II belittling his history teacher with his vast preinstalled knowledge. He has a confidence already built in and some wisdom for good sonic creation.
Although the band are ultimately a duo, Breeze sat at the back of the stage and smacked those drums like an animal whilst Hunter didn’t break a sweat for most of the night.
With a view from above, the audience moved in waves whilst the obligatory crowd surfing and mosh pit took effect. Milkie, Sam and the band’s programmer all have a bash at it too, with the audience’s grappling hands smothering each of them in turn; not forgetting those capturing it all on their phones.
The band’s recorded output, with its meticulous, clipped production, wouldn’t necessarily be expected to be reproduced live, especially with the venues stone cold walls to plaster with their multi-metal genre sound. But they just about did it you know, all the Milkie way.
Review: Robin Ainsley King
Photography: Emma Painter // Pacific Curd Photography
