LIVE REVIEW: SeeYouSpaceCowboy @ New Cross Inn, London
With their critically-acclaimed third album Coup De Gracê under their belts, SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY have landed in the nation’s capital armed to the teeth with massive hooks and even bigger ambitions, a headline slot at Liverpool’s No Play Festival looming after this headline jaunt.
Madrid’s BONEFLOWER combine the lush ambience of DEAFHEAVEN with the soul-searching emotional pull of TOUCHÉ AMORE, their blend of screamo and atmospheric post-hardcore an incredibly appealing one. Despite their lower billing, it’s a solid crowd already at New Cross Inn, possibly due to them having never toured the UK before we they admit early on. With new songs played from their upcoming album for the first time ever, they demonstrate an ear for tortured songwriting that straddles the line of gorgeous instrumentation and pained howling vocals that act like picking open wounds. An extremely promising start and a band that should surely be on more radars.
Rating: 8/10
For a band called KILLING ME SOFTLY, the onslaught they deliver is anything but. Acerbic howls, guttural roars and ignorant breakdowns all strike within the first song, the pit already seething and threatening to boil over. There’s a touch of CONVERGE to the frantic screeches, while the rest of their sound is pure early 00s metalcore in the vein of POISON THE WELL or BOTCH. “You can come forward a bit,” their vocalist grins partway through, but from the whirling limbs in the pit there’s clearly not quite the universal appetite for being mauled he’s hoping for. Not that it matters for those already pitting and hurling themselves around, of which there’s plenty. Regardless of the violence in front of them, they put on a stellar set that calls back to metalcore’s golden era without being derivative and prove why they’re a hotly tipped name in the UK scene.
Rating: 8/10
“SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY are on now!” is the only warning those milling outside waiting, with the band on a full 15 minutes early. Barely seconds after people have piled in, Allow Us To Set The Scene does just that before they follow it with the mass singalong of Subtle Whispers To Take Your Breath Away. Connie Sgarbossa commands the crowd with ease, beckoning them forward and inciting singalongs as much as stage divers. The band are leaning heavily into the Coup De Gracê aesthetic, white shirts for all with Sgarbossa’s painted with a huge red heart. Stacking the set list with the new album is the obvious move, and one that pays huge dividends – unsurprising given its quality and the earworm hooks it’s shot through with.
Red Wine And Discontent sounds massive in the room’s confines, while Lubricant Like Kerosene is the most danceable metalcore song of the year, elevated to new heights with the crowd going wild for its phenomenal hook. It’s pandemonium in the crowd, but rather than feeling dangerous it’s the sight of a mass of people moving and grooving together, losing themselves in the sasscore legends’ first time over in far too long. They’re on for less than an hour, but it’s inarguably the best possible start to this tour.
Rating: 9/10
Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in London from Sarah Tsang here:
Like SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY on Facebook.