SLAVES - O2 ACADEMY, BRIXTON 17TH DECEMBER 2015 (LIVE)

This was one of two SLAVES gigs we had planned towards the climatic end of 2015. We were due to see the punk sensations at the O2 forum in Kentish Town in November but the gig had to be cancelled when Isaac (Vocals/ Drums) attempted a rather dodgy stage dive at their show in Norwich and dislocated his shoulder. They were both very apologetic about the whole situation and to be honest who can blame them for a risky stage dive at the beginning of the tour, they’ve had an absolutely incredible year of success and deserve to enjoy every last minute of it. The show was postponed until 14th January 2016, same venue and same tickets applied unfortunately for us we had a prior engagement with an old school indulgement from across the pond, Alien Ant Farm. Having seen Slaves multiple times in 2015 we decided it would be totally irresponsible to choose them over AAF, opportunities to see them in the UK are sparse to say the least. Watch out on Twitter and FB over the next few weeks as we will be posting up the extremely overdue review of that gig aswell. But for now let's get back to the matter at hand, although the November gig had been cancelled we were fortunate enough to have tickets to see them in December aswell, so not much of an upset from our side. This wasn’t just like any old routine endeavor up to London, gone were the days of dingy small venues this was a SOLD OUT show at London's famous Brixton Academy. Yeah you heard that right Slaves sold out Brixton. What a fitting pinnacle to a quality year! Their reaction on stage said it all you could tell the lads were genuinely humbled and totally stoked to be playing such an event. It's great to see the success story of a band like this; it proves what hard work and dedication can achieve in today's music industry.

The venue was heaving with a mob of angsty youths all pumped and ready to see the boys in action. From an initial observation we could see that the general crowd had adapted a little bit since that May gig at Scala, London. The average age of the crowd had plummeted from around 22/23 to about 16/17 which probably coincides tidily with the correlation of their success. They had successfully infected colleges and sixth forms around the country and we all know what happens from then on. Much like a rampant STD, trends, music & styles spread like wildfire in colleges; as soon as one person catches wind of a ‘cool’ new stimuli everybody and their uncle has heard of it within a week. The catalyst for this was clearly their cover of Skepta's 'Shutdown' from their stint at BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge session. Half way through the gig in the midst of the humid and raucous crowd you could hear the overpowering screams of excited pubescent teens demanding a performance of Shutdown. Eventually they were granted this honour and we must admit it's a fucking great cover. This wasn't however their only cover of the evening, the lads, known for their humorous side, decided to throw their other, more recent, live lounge cover of Wham's - Last Christmas onto the setlist. Fitting considering we were but days away from being visited by the mysterious fat man with an insatiable obsession for mince pies and chimneys. The cover has a real ‘knees up mother brown’ feel to it, you can almost imagine a family of pissheads dancing around their front room on Christmas Eve singing the words at the top of their voices.This was hilarious to hear live and got the crowd going absolutely bonkers (not that they needed anymore reason too).

Our favourite track of the night had to be the one that started our personal journey with Slaves, our first taste of their punky goodness. They introduced the track with a reminiscent tone before dropping into Sugar Coated Bitter Truth's - Beauty Quest which is also included on the deluxe version of 'Are You Satisfied?'. Heavy, angry, rapid and downright euphoric an awesome song; one that could well be our favourite for albums to come. The setlist was jam packed with great songs opening with White Knuckle Ride and ending with Girl Fight. Filling this riotous sandwich of tunes we had Sockets, Do Something and Feed The Mantaray which, as you all know by now, is a crowd pleaser. Their infamous Mantaray mascot always makes an epic cameo appearance during that track so it was no surprise when he turned up on stage, prancing around. This time however we had a Christmas Mantaray complete with red hat and festive spirit. The full setlist can be seen HERE: http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/slaves/2015/o2-academy-brixton-london-england-73f22e5d.html. The night flew by and before we knew it the bastard lights were coming up to reveal thousands of sweaty red faces. This is the common curse of a awesome gig, there you are having a great time moshing, listening, singing, dancing whatever your cup of tea is and before you know it you’re being thrown out into the wintery night staggering for last orders at the nearest pub on the way back to the tube station.

We’ve all grown accustomed to the attraction of a two piece band causing a racket on guitar and drums. Is it something to do with the raw stripped back nature of the set up that ignites our primal instincts and makes us behave like bunch of wild animals or are we merely not as deep into the cycle of evolution as we thought we were? We’ve seen it succeed many times before with The White Stripes, The Black Keys and more recently Royal Blood. Absolutely no restrictions apply with these bands, or boundaries for that matter, despite what some morbid creatures in the music industry will continually drum into the head of their readers two piece bands are in no way doomed to smaller stages. What they lack in human stage presence they make up for with amps, fuzz, distortion, attitude and ferocious noise. Slaves are no exception to the status quo, we feel they could dominate a prime time spot at any UK festival Main Stage. Obviously they would need to do a lot to worm their way up to a headline slot, and to be honest that seems like a long shot, but who are we to predict the future, anything can happen. It seems as if the lads are already back in the studio working hard on their new album whilst in and out of a few gigs, recently collaborating with Chase and Status on new track Control and the summer festival season. Busy, busy, busy for Slaves at the moment. We can’t wait to hear what they come up with for album number two, will it be more of the same? Will they explore new areas of their punky power riff sound? That we can’t say for sure, let’s hope they don’t fall victim to the notorious 2nd album curse. Come to think of it, where the fuck are Royal Blood and their second album?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NkrYMNS7fk

Here's a clip of SLAVES - The Hunter from Brixton we found on YouTube (it's not the best, but you get the jist)