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Review: Hot Water Music, SWX – ‘Filled with passionate anthems’
The first night of the Hot Water Music UK tour kicked off in style at SWX with two of the liveliest supports I’ve seen this year.
Catbite came running on stage on time (tip always check the instagram of the support acts to make sure you get the correct set times as I nearly missed this band!).
They have the crowd skanking and bopping away before long. Bad Influence is a sublime ska song showing off lead singers Brit Luna’s impeccable punk rock Amy Winehouse esque vocals.
is needed now More than ever
Energy oozes out of the band, Scratch Me Out is so infectious it has me singing to a song I don’t know! Who knew that all I needed to lift my mood was some Philly ska punk rock therapy.
They play a great Operation Ivy cover and away they go!
Next up were noise makers and Massachusetts modern wayfarers A Wilhelm Scream. A hardcore band that everyone around me in Bristol was very enthusiastic to see tonight.
Singer Nuno Pereira is more than enthusiastic as the runs left to right right left around the stage with very little time for rest dressed in both camouflage and leopard print.
The crowd are sweaty messes and I’m soaked in my pint as it’s thrusted into my face during Boat Buliders, with the crowd erupted into one of many circle pits.
There were lost and found glasses, people slipping over and all for a band giving it everything as they support one of their inspirations.
Ending on The King Is Dead where band and crowd both lost their shit, the song is a heavy melodic mix with a monster riff.
I’m at this show because singer Chuck Ragan told me about it at his solo show at the Exchange earlier this year. This gig was introduced as celebration of 30 years of Hot Water Music
After a small breather to recover from the support acts and we took our places on the balcony to observe the opening of the set.
The band don’t mess around flying through a set of crowd pleasers with the crowd a sea of sweaty squirming pointy fans. Clearly people had been waiting for a long time for this gig.
There’s no real let up, From Menace to Burn Forever to Jack Of All Trades, the sweat hits the floor and they play full throttle.
The vocals of Chuck Ragan and Chris Crustwell are a combination that covers every inch I need from punk rock the rough with smooth. There is so much love and adoration in this room for this band.
My time was up on the balcony now and it was time to get on the mix. I ran down in time to scream Turn the Dial along with the rest of the place, before long I’d bounced my way to the barrier as it seemed a safer place to avoid flying elbows and knees!
Drag My Body is my favourite now my favourite Hot Water Music track with Chuck’s vocals booming as powerful as anything you’ve heard, fist-clenching passion enough to rattle anyone’s bones.
Trusty Chords ends tonight’s celebration of a band that may have passed me by somehow in the past but is now firmly in consciousness and future plans.
Filled with passionate anthems, this set had me gripped, sweaty, smiling and screaming. Can’t ask for much more.
Main photo: www.jcut.video
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