LIVE REVIEW: Neck Deep @ O2 Academy Bristol, Bristol
It’s been almost two years of rescheduling this tour due to ongoing issues caused by the pandemic, with the live music industry taking some serious hard knocks. This puts five years between the last headlining UK run with this eight-date tour from NECK DEEP. Tonight, they finish up with a sold-out show at Bristol’s O2 Academy, many fans making the journey from the Welshmen’s motherland, where this particular night was meant to play out to the much larger, Cardiff Motor Point Arena.
Opening the night was Edinburgh’s HAPPYDAZE, a four-piece blend of lo-fi alternative emo and pop punk. Despite a lack of crowd focus for these newcomers, they were not short of their own enthusiasm and self-belief even when their requests for jumping and bopping were met with dead stares, instead they endeavoured to win the audience over with tracks from their EP; Underground Summer Sound.
Rating: 7/10
Amping up the energy in the room was a wild bunch of lads from Leeds known as HIGHER POWER, not quite hardcore and not quite punk, but the best of both rolled into a feisty frenzy of monumental riffs and grungy vocals, transporting you anywhere from the 70s to the 90s. The crowd seem to pick up on the frequency blasting from the speakers and the bodies start moving. HIGHER POWER are definitely more suited to a dingy hole in the wall where they can wrap an arm around the crowd and growl in the faces of the fans, yet put this band on a bill with the likes of FEVER 333 and for sure, the return of lightning they give out will be well mirrored.
Rating: 9/10
WARGASM, surely there isn’t actually anyone out there who hasn’t bear witness to these Tasmanian devils tearing up stages across the UK over the past couple of years? Supporting huge acts, festival spots and headlining a sold out 10 date stint. Sam Mattock’s nu-metal vocals meet Milkie Way’s high pitch K-Pop cuteness making for cyber punk rock that is not only impressive but infectious. The band smash out their cover of N*E*R*D’s Lapdance, which induces some singing along within the growing pit. Closing their set with hot hit, Spit, the crowd are pretty fuelled up on WARGASM’s effervescent spirit and are well warmed up for the men of the hour.
Rating: 10/10
Three hours after the doors opened, NECK DEEP finally enter through a make-shift bedroom door to the stage which has been dressed like a sitcom set to resemble the birth place of the band’s 10-year career; the Barlow brothers’ attic. Complete with a plethora of millennial memorabilia on display, a static television flickering 8-bit video games and incense burning on a dresser, the nostalgia is rife in here. All Distortions Are Intentional‘s opening track Sonderland begins and so does the pop-punk house party we’ve just been invited to.
For the next hour and half the fans are treated to 19 tracks, a truly epic offering of all their greatest hits from their five studio albums. A good selection to appease the new fans and the die-hards. Kali Ma receives the night’s first wave of crowd surfers after a brief clip of Indiana Jones playing on the old TV behind Seb. Towards the end of the gig, Ben Barlow takes an opportunity to offer words of encouragement and belief in yourself to achieve your goals before you give up the ghost, a message resonated in their ‘last’ song of the night, Pushing Daisies.
The wait for the encore wasn’t a drawn-out plea for an ego stroke for the band but instead the crowd are invited to chant “FUCK NECK DEEP”, 10 seconds later and the five-piece are back with Gold Steps followed by fan favourite In Bloom, which saw all the support acts take their place on the sitcom set and revel in the atmosphere to say farewell to this incredible tour. Consider everyone super stoked to catch NECK DEEP again at Slam Dunk Festival in June.
Rating: 10/10
Check out our photo gallery from the night’s action in Bristol from Camille Watkins here:
