LIVE REVIEW: Cancer Bats @ The Underworld, London
With this year being the 10th anniversary of their breakthrough album Hail Destroyer, CANCER BATS have been playing a few special shows to celebrate this. This included four nights at The Underworld in London, making them the first band to ever play four consecutive shows in this venue.
FUNERAL SHAKES are a fun opener for the evening. Their songs are catchy and their energy is totally infectious. They play up to the crowd loads of with their stage banter and just create a really nice vibe for their whole set. It’s a shame that due to their early set time and doors opening late the room was barely full for them. But they made the most of their set and did have a few fans make it down early to see them.
Rating: 7/10
Death By Stereo are equally as fun throwing out a blast of 90’s hardcore punk straight from California. They switch seamlessly between ferocious hardcore aggression and huge melodic choruses and again just fill the room with positive vibes. Whilst there is plenty of silly posing and antics but it never detracts from the music. At one point half the band end up circle pitting around the room whilst still playing. Yet this doesn’t feel quite as ridiculous as their cover of Raining Blood. It’s a very silly set but is highly entertaining.
Rating: 7/10
When it comes to positive vibes though, there aren’t many who can match CANCER BATS. And with tonight being the final night of their Hail Destroyer anniversary shows it’s clear this set was just gonna be one big celebration. But before that they decided to get the crowd warmed up the a slightly ridiculous opening run of songs. When CANCER BATS open a set with their cover of Sabotage you know things are gonna get wild. Arsenic In The Year Of The Snake and Bricks & Mortar follow this before they dive headfirst into the Hail Destroyer celebrations.
From the opening note of the title track the crowd proceed to relentlessly lose their mind for the next 40 minutes. It’s not surprising that this album holds a huge amount of sentimentality for both the band and their fans and it’s just so great for them to share this together. Liam Cormier is his usually hyperactive self and his energy just constantly rubs off on the crowd.
Even with them playing the album in full this didn’t just feel like another album in full set that so many bands lazily rely on now. It just felt like CANCER BATS just playing a bunch of their best songs. Hearing some of the deeper cuts from this album like Bastard’s Waltz and PMA ’til I’m DOA was really cool but it’s still this albums singles that are the standouts. Lucifer’s Rocking Chair and Deathsmarch will always be highlights of any CANCER BATS set.
Once they were finished with Hail Destroyer they returned for a few more songs including a few from their recent surprise album The Spark That Moves. Gatekeeper and Winterpeg sound right at home in this set alongside fan favourite R.A.T.S. Finally they decide to bring this four night residency to a close by playing Hail Destroyer for the second time of the night. Whilst usually this sort of thing can be a bit lazy it just feels like the right way for CANCER BATS to wrap up this celebration of what is arguably the most important album of their career.
Rating: 9/10
Check out our photo gallery from the chaotic night at The Underworld from Fran Dignon Visuals here:
