Gouge Away, Teenage Wrist and Angel Du$t
Oslo, Hackney, London
By Alex Walden
A trifecta masterclass in crowd control
After hearing that Hardcore punk band Gouge Away were not only coming to the UK but were accompanied by Teenage Wrist and Angel Du$t, Alex Walden set out to Hackney’s Oslo with the aim of learning more about the hardcore show experience.
I’m going to be completely honest with you here; this concert was much more than seeing a couple bands for me. This was my first time going to a concert purely with the intention of writing about it, meaning that I went completely by myself and with the pure intention of doing nothing other than standing at the back and making notes on my phone. As excited, as I was to see Gouge Away for the first time, I’ll admit that as I walked up the stairs to the venue, I was surprisingly nervous. While I’ve been to a few gigs in my lifetime, this was not only my first time going to a proper hardcore concert, but it was also my first time going to a concert completely by myself.
Nonetheless, from what I could gather from people attending the show, the likes of Gouge Away, Teenage Wrist and Angel Du$t were supposedly a solid lineup to break the ice for me.
Gouge Away
After a very short but very intense opening set from Ikhras, all that ran through my mind as a stood at the back with my earplugs in was “what the hell have I got myself into?”. Nonetheless, I soldiered on knowing that the one band that I was actually excited to see was up next.
I think that a problem that the music industry has always suffered from is that we see artists through a screen so often that when we see them live it can often feel surreal. But it’s times like this when we realise that they’re human too just like you and me. After a brief conversion with the bands bassist, Tyler Forsythe, at the merch stand before the show; I realised that these guys are far more than just a cool band that I would always see on my phone screen. These guys were human beings too, just trying to pave their own path in life, just like I was that day. It was the emancipating feeling of this realisation that I found to be prominent throughout Gouge Away’s show.
As the drums for Stuck in a Dream came crashing in to signify the beginning of the show, I couldn’t help but notice how alive everyone felt. Everyone on the stage was bouncing around aimlessly with pure, unbridled, good energy. that was until vocalist, Christina Michelle, erupted into a scream so in your face that I had no choice but to be taken aback by it.
I think what made it so shocking was the fact that it didn’t sound like the voice that I had been hearing through my headphones but to be honest, who can blame her, this was the last show on 15 stop European tour, of course she’s not going to have album quality pipes. But don’t get it confused, that is not to say that it sounded bad. As a matter of fact I liked it that way that it sounded, it felt more personal, if the show had sounded exactly like the songs I had been hearing for the past few months on my phone, I probably would’ve found it be pretty boring and so would they.
Unfortunately, Michelle’s vocals tragically also served as one of the downsides of the show as whenever she find herself at a part of song where she would have to sing; I couldn’t just barely hear her, I flat out couldn’t hear her at all. Granted she does tend sing rather quietly; weather this was due to her vocals being shot or the sound technicians providing a dodgy mix or just simply the difficulty of the microphone picking up her voice as it was probably at a low gain, I simply don’t know, however it was sorely missed. Michelle’s singing vocals have a very delicate touch to them, it’s like the audial version watching a petal slowly glide through the air spiralling downwards as it’s makes a soft ripple on a small puddle before it’s instantly crushed as it’s gets stomped on by the heavy industrial boot that is Michelle’s screams. The bands final song Ghost was a prime example of this as while the buildup to the songs chorus is absolutely electrifying, I felt as if it was more the anticipation of what was to come that kept me fired up rather than the show; but boy did she deliver in that chorus. I felt as if I could feel my pupils widening as I heard that classic “it makes me wonder”.
Teenage Wrist
After seeing the only band that I actually knew of in the first set, I’d be lying if I said that I was 100% set on sticking around for the next two acts. However, the set of Teenage Wrist made me glad I stayed. Frontman Marshall Gallagher has a real talent for connecting with the audience, every now and then someone from a few rows back would shout something in pure excitement and Gallagher would respond and start a whole monologue to kill time while all the guitarists were tuning for the next song, and it was done so well that you wouldn’t even notice. But that’s not all, In a world where giving absolute spectacles for performances every time is paramount for many artists, often the value of bridging together the gap between audience and artist to make them unify them as one is often forgotten about, yet with a Teenage Wrist show, it feels as if that is their number one priority. It was the first time that I had seen a band ask the audience what they want to hear in real life. I used to think that that kind of stuff was reserved for the A-list celebrity acts that are way past their prime, but Teenage Wrist are setting the standard even higher for the newer acts.
Teenage Wrist are pretty riff-heavy when it comes to their songs, and they aren’t afraid to pull out the odd solo as well to really gave the fans something to marvel at. These two things combined make some really good songs that have the power to get stuck in your head and not leave for ages and songs such as Mary and Earth Is A Black Hole were prime examples in my case, however I’d be lying If I said that I left the show dying to get my hands on the “This is Teenage Wrist” playlist on Spotify as I got the train home. I think that it could be partly down to the fact that Teenage Wrist was very much the anomaly act for the night in terms of genre but don’t let this distract you from the fact that I still very much enjoyed it as did the rest of the crowd and I like to think that they did too. It was a real step up in terms of crowd connection.
Angel Du$t
It was after leaving the venue and heading downstairs to the bar that I had realised that the audience had increased by about a third in size since Teenage Wrist’s set. It was also at the bar that, when in conversation with a few fans, I mentioned how I had only really come for Gouge Away and considering that immediately after Angel Du$t’s set was the Euros final in which England were playing (for any non-English readers, England doing well in a football tournament is genuinely the only time that the British Population break away from being miserable 24/7, so this was huge), I was on the fence of just going home after finishing the beer in my hand. It was then that I was practically told the same thing by everyone which was “you need to stay for Angel Du$t”. After being convinced to tag along for one last hurrah I was told by an American, also named Alex, that I was in for a “F*cking good time”… and my god was he right.
As the band underwent a sound check, bassist Zech Ghostribe decided to use the mic checks to start a chant of “It’s coming Home” every chance he could in an attempt to rile up the fans in preparation of what was about to come. Evidently these guys did their homework because I know damn well I was excited for what was to come next. Yet as three members took the stage looking ready to rock the house, I couldn’t help but notice that there was mic stand in the centre with no one claiming it. “Maybe this is one of those three-man bands that can still have a rich and vicious sound, like Motorhead” I thought. However, it was at this point that a charged-up Justice Tripp stormed out on stage and in the in the space of around 5 seconds, had managed to grab the attention of the crowd, give them enough energy to just slight push them slightly over the edge, and then burst into the first song of the set, Toxic Boombox.
I try to refrain from overly praising the lead singer of bands when I write as while they appear to have all the charisma and stage presence, they’re only 1 part of band and everyone has their own essential roles, no matter how big or small they appear to seem. However, it wasn’t until after the show, when I spoke with my friend Steph, that I realised how according to him, “The singer is a hardcore legend” and my god was he right. Even from just one show I could tell that Justice Tripp is in a league of his own. I’ve never seen someone with so much pure power and control over an audience. Between giving his absolute all on vocals to passing the microphone around to the fans to make sure they got a slice of some of the action, it felt like watching a war general hyping up his soldiers before charging head into a great battle. Regardless of my hyperbolic expressions, this show was definitely one for my history books at least.
Despite the perfect display of leadership from Tripp, I must stress that the entire set wasn’t purely guns blazing chaos. In-between the hellraising and heavy moshing, every now and then there would be a brief pause as Tripp announced something along the lines of “this next song is a love song so make that if you’re with that special someone, you give a quick smooch” which to me felt like the band new the audience were there to have a damn good time above all else, Afterall, what say’s true love more than a cheeky smooch from a loved one before your favourite Hardcore band erupt into song. Yet this was far from the peak of it all. The moment that solidified my future as an Angel Du$t fan would have to be when Tripp abruptly stopped the show to say, “We have a special announcement, we don’t normally do this at our shows, but this is important”. All sorts of things ran through my mind as Tripp passed his microphone to Ghostribe who gazed at the ground for a couple of seconds and took a deep breath to gather himself. Maybe they were about to use their platform to give a political speech, maybe they were about to announce that this was their last show ever and I, by pure chance, got to see it that would be a damn fun one to write up, I thought. Yet my mind quickly stopped running wild as Ghostribe belted out, for what must’ve been the 8th time at this point, “It’s coming home! It’s coming home! Football’s coming home!” And you know what? It was just as funny this time, if not even funnier, than the previous 7 times. While I do have a video capturing this moment when everyone chanted back before Tripp suddenly (and I mean very suddenly) busted into Let it Rot, I have chosen to keep it to myself as this a review of Angel Du$t’s set, and not a review of me shouting football chants while I’m 5-6 beers deep on the edge of a moshpit.
Angel Du$t are one of only a few bands who I’ve seen live having known nothing about them yet after seeing them, have craved their music. it takes a delicate balance of good atmosphere as well as good music to make that. And as far as I’m concerned, Angel Du$t absolutely smashed it.
Conclusion
This day was a very hefty day for me, I had so much going on before and after the show that transformed into so many ups and downs, that it took me a while to shake the rose-tinted glasses off of my face and look at this from a clear perspective to write this piece. While none of the sets were 100% perfect, every act was able to use their strengths to deliver their best performances possible. Whether it be poor sound quality or being the standout genre; every act was able to make a fun and engaging show out of just a couple instruments and a small venue. It ended turning out to be a life lesson at the end of it all.
“This show taught me that sometimes in life, things aren’t going to go as you plan, so it’s best to just work with what you’ve got and have some damn good fun in the process.”
I mentioned it briefly in the beginning but if you or anyone you know wants to go to a concert but is scared because of going alone. Just go, I promise you that it’s not that bad and it’s so easy to meet new people at shows.
