LIVE REVIEW: Speed @ The Electric Ballroom, London
There’s one language being spoken in London tonight, and no, it’s not English: it’s hardcore. SPEED. The seven year-young, hardcore band from Sydney, Australia, are celebrating the end of their UK tour in London, with two special guests – WHISPERS and BODYWEB – two additional special guests – SPLITKNUCKLE and SOVEREIGN – and a 1,500-strong, very much sold-out crowd. The Aussies have carved out a special place for Sydney on the hardcore map, and then some. But it’s not just the hardcore kids out to play at Camden’s The Electric Ballroom, for so great (and speedy) has SPEED’s rise been since they formed in 2019 that they have amassed a following of all sorts of heavy music lovers. While The Electric Ballroom is home tonight to mouth-guards, SPEED merch and cargo pants, you can also see the fishnets, shirts and ties looking just as at home in the limb-flailing, life-affirming pit of aggression.
So. There are five opportunities to get smacked in the face. Five bands to pledge allegiance to, fall a bit in love with or pull a frowning face of approval as you realise this is a night of hardcore that’s going straight into the tome of legends.
Nottingham’s SOVEREIGN are a dark and menacing first act, with a no-frills hardcore rage that results in the pit reaching across the full width of the venue. While it is more of a void at this point, the night’s most hardcore of two-steppers get their vital warmups in, even opening up a two-step circle pit when vocalist Euan Lees demands it. With a Palestinian flag on one side of the stage and a Celtic Football Club flag on the other, it’s clear before they even mention it that SOVEREIGN stand strong for social justice and freedom. And so it is with extra impassioned fervour that Euan bellows, “if you want to mosh, step the fuck up”. The six of them are a tight, brutal band of brothers, playing music that acts as a middle finger to all your enemies if only you could stop headbanging for long enough to find them.
Rating: 8/10
“We’re a peace and love band. Ain’t about hitting each other or any of that shit,” SPLITKNUCKLE vocalist Joey Drake says as he paces back and forth across the stage with unnerving speed. “That’s a fucking lie”. And the pot calls the kettle black. He rambles on for a tad longer, with some drum blasts from Matt Bullis adding emphasis to every sentence, before admitting they’re having a few technical difficulties. The dramatics don’t last long, and the Essex hardcore maniacs rip into a set that’s as abrasive as it is impressive. Joey launches between rap screeches and brutish roars, with some truly nuts echoes on his screams coming out of the sound system. It’s a crowd-killing, crowdsurfing, crowd-filling twenty-minute spectacle, and while SPLITKNUCKLE can’t seem to headbang in time together, it only adds to their riotous hustle. The Electric Ballroom is packed to the rafters by the time the Essex lads exit the stage – but the mayhem has barely begun.
Rating: 8/10
“We used to be stoked if there were like 40 people at a hardcore show. And now look at this place,” BODYWEB’s vocalist Louis Hardy sums up the delighted awe more and more hardcore bands are being blessed with, as the momentum of hardcore keeps on ramping up. The Leeds-based electronic hardcore band promise a different flavour of the genre tonight, with a mixing deck ready to go on stage and the lighting bleeding out to a red-tinged darkness. They ensnare the crowd with their industrial-fused hardcore and sick bass tones, leading to a whole lot of foot stomping, “old school” mosh pits and flying bodies. And the party only pauses for…an actual party: it’s guitarist Tom Hobson’s birthday, and the band has prepared him a cake. It’s fists out and let it all out in the mosh pit, with pull the plug inspiring the biggest two-step turn out of the night so far. BODYWEB bring the comfort in the darkness, and put on one hell of a catchy, ear-splitting set.
Rating: 8/10
When the lights turn up, it’s not the not-so-subtle hint from the venue to get the fuck out. It’s a not-so-subtle hint from the hardcore bruisers left that they’re not here to beat around the bush; this is a hardcore show, and WHISPERS and SPEED want to witness every second of the high-tempo violence that erupts.
The stage is rammed with bodies for Thailand’s WHISPERS, be it band members, crew, or family, the metallic hardcore dudes are surrounded. Their unrelenting ‘evilcore’ shakes the building to the point of concern, with a drum and bass onslaught and not a single ounce of let-up from any of these musicians. SPEED’s Jem Siow makes an early guest appearance for A Choice To Survive, and commands everyone to open up the pit and fuck it up. If SPEED and WHISPERS command it, who is London to say no? From Bangkok to London, this is the band’s first time in the British capital, and they couldn’t look more excited to be here. Vocalist Nitisart ‘Mike’ Chaiburi takes a brief pause to reflect on the first time they met SPEED and how they didn’t speak the same language. But it turned out not to matter because the common language that they did share was even stronger: hardcore. WHISPERS are beautiful aggression, an all-out attack of the kind that puts a grin on everyone’s face – except for the security guard who came close to a heart attack when the first stage diver caught him unawares.
Rating: 9/10
Sppppeeeeeeedddddddddddd. It begins as a hiss before the Aussies have even charged onto the stage. But before that, it was a text sent to friends, just one word with way too many letters, to make sure everyone’s unhinged excitement was on the same page. YouTube comments wonder why people are booing the band, much to Jem’s amusement – how have they ended up with a now inescapable band chant that sounds like fucking booing? But if you know, you know. And a pretty large sum of people do now know, so don’t be alarmed if one day you’re walking down the street, and someone whispers, “spppppeeeeeeeedddddd” in your ear, just to check out what kind of person you are.
SPEED are everything attractive about hardcore. They value community, revitalising their local scene in Australia in order to inspire the generations to come. They speak up, be it speaking up about anti-Asian hate crimes when their Government doesn’t, or simply about the importance of compassion as human beings. And they go hard. Seriously hard. They ARE a band called SPEED, after all. “I even enjoy just watching people enjoying SPEED,” one fan gushes outside the venue before the show has even started. A SPEED show is so biblical in its chaos, its joy and its ferocity, that being a spectator is almost as great as being a participant. Almost.
SPEED are a full-on brutality package, the two-step tsunami causing havoc on the ground as stage divers rip chaos through the air. “From the front to the fucking back, this is a hardcore show now motherfucker.” Whether it’s shouts of “I give it all away” to DON’T NEED, swaying at the bar, or body annihilations in the pit, Jem gets all of London involved. His charisma and endearing, never-ending positivity are impossible to ignore and addictive to act on.“What the fuck, man? Is it a selfish thing to say I’m having the best time of my life? This is my family: a Gang Called Speed. Finding hardcore at a young age, you find all the skills needed to live a meaningful life.” Jem also laughs about how he’s 33 and still looking sexy, along with huge grateful speeches to each and every one of the bands they’re touring with. It’s more of a tearjerking moment than the spin kicks to the nose, and one that reminds every single damn human in that room how lucky they are to be here with this band tonight.
It wouldn’t be a SPEED show without a flute appearance (thank god for Jem’s classical flute training at university). But after the first few trills of the flute in THE FIRST TEST, members of WHISPERS and the other support bands, some crew, and, well, a load of bodies flood the stage to join SPEED, bleating on recorders like it’s a primary school music corner. Who would have thought two-stepping violence and colourful recorders would be a match made in heaven? SPEED would. Because SPEED are the best.
Rating: 10/10
Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in London from Anne Pfalzgraf here:
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