LIVE REVIEW: State Champs @ The Marble Factory, Bristol
A stone’s throw from Bristol Temple Meads lies The Marble Factory, a warehouse-turned-rock venue that tonight is filling up with tattooed millennials eager for a pop-punk party headed by STATE CHAMPS.
First up tonight are Australian pop-punkers BETWEEN YOU & ME, whose painfully generic fare fails to elicit a reaction from anyone but a handful of hardcore fans in the front row. The Australian band are quick to complain that the audience isn’t animated enough, but never question if the blandness of their tunes could be the reason for the low energy. An ill-judged stage dive brings the forgettable set to a close.
Rating: 5/10
Luckily, Cleveland punks HEART ATTACK MAN bound onto the stage with nervous energy to spare for their first-ever show outside of North America. Rocking a Dimebag Darrel guitar complete with lightning bolt livery, Eric Egan is the perfect frontman for the band’s irreverent brand of pop-punk. The band waste no time, kicking into their furious anthem Puke off their 2021 EP Thoughts & Prayerz, which culminates in the huge chant of “you make me want to fucking puke!” – it might seem juvenile but the crowd laps it up.
Later, the band’s sardonic edge comes to the fore with Cool 2 Me, a sharp attack on music fans that turn a blind eye to abusive performers. The band continue to impress, rattling through hits from their 2019 album, the mosh pit growing in jubilance with each tune. Out For Blood gets the singalongs going, while Fake Blood instantly catches the ears with its soaring lead guitar line. Leap Year closes the set hinting at a bright future to come for the four-piece.
Rating: 8/10
With the crowd already in party mode, STATE CHAMPS turn the vibes up to 11 with their bouncy power-pop stylings. Despite being far from the most distinctive band in the genre, the New York quartet have remained a likeable mainstay of the pop-punk scene for over a decade now and it shows in the crowd that has gathered in Bristol this Sunday night.
The band honour that legacy by playing a good mixture of songs from throughout their career, tailored towards the yet-to-released Kings Of The New Age but with a decent helping of tunes from their buzzy debut The Finer Things. The band kick off with two live debuts, for Here To Stay and Eventually, before dropping in a track from their middling 2018 record Living Proof. But it’s the 2021 single Outta My Head that gets the crowd bouncing, with its Rock Show-esque BLINK 182-style riffs and infectiously boppy chorus.
Following this, the old favourite Hard To Please finds the crowd relatively pleasable. The song is one of Derek DiScanio‘s more impressive performances and it shines in the live setting as much today as it did in 2013. Later in the set Simple Existence and Remedy bring the excitement to fever pitch with a huge circle pit dragging throngs of unwitting fans into its orbit.
Despite the repetitiveness of the group’s catalogue, the audience remains engaged throughout, with circle pits and crowd surfers aplenty. Some variety is needed to really elevate the set, but tonight STATE CHAMPS deliver their summery pop tunes with an infectious enthusiasm that is sure to win over detractors. And who could ask for more than that.
Rating: 7/10
Check out our photo gallery from the night’s action in Bristol from Normandy Photography here:
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