LIVE REVIEW: Static Dress @ O2 Academy Islington, London
Post hardcore outfits STATIC DRESS are celebrating another banner year for the band with a Roadrunner deal inked and a deluxe edition of breakout debut Rouge Carpet Disaster out. This victory lap features some of the biggest venues they’ve headlined, with tonight’s show promising to be a special one.
Openers OUT OF LOVE funnel shades of THE DIRTY NIL through their melodic punk, making for a set full of as many anthems as attitude. There’s some 90s alt rock influence in there too, a grungy slower number emerging midway through the set. They’re unpolished in the right sort of way; a garage punk feeling that endures there’s plenty of two stepping and hardcore moshing for them. In a recurring theme for the supports tonight, it’s a short set but one that’s no less impactful.
Rating: 7/10
BODYWEB are worlds away, peddling experimental metallic hardcore flecked with nu metal, and a swirling pit immediately opens the moment their first riff kicks in. Glitchy skittering electronics are paired with flourishes of melody and atmospheric passages a la LOATHE. Shifting between that and skull rattling intensity, it’s a raucous display that clearly marks the young band as one with a bright future in the UK’s scene that’s increasingly embracing experimenting with new and old sounds alike.
Rating: 8/10
In another contrast, WORLD OF PLEASURE jettison the experimentalism and instead embrace the riff. The vegan straight edge metalcore quintet sound monstrously heavy, bringing in guest spots from their friends and touring crew across the songs. Covering their entire discography in just twenty minutes, they cram nine songs of vegan vengeance into their short time onstage. Jess Nyx is a formidable vocalist, snarling through the likes of Everyone Finds Love and Penitence while her co-conspirators offer razor edged riffing, sub bass drops to rattle the skull and blistering drum work. There’s a gleeful savagery in screaming “animal liberation, vegan domination”, and the cathartic “I am straight edge in spite of you” that simply doesn’t get old.
Rating: 9/10
Fans will already be familiar with the world building that STATIC DRESS have been doing across albums and their live shows, and the quartet don’t disappoint tonight. Coming onstage to ROBBIE WILLIAMS and a late 90s DVD logo (you know the one) bouncing round the two sets of nine CRT TVs set up either side of the stage, the room is immediately transported into the band’s anachronistic world. fleahouse and push rope set the scene, bouncing post-hardcore with huge melodies, before Courtney, just relax.
With them both being on the bill, it only makes sense for Jess Nyx of WORLD OF PLEASURE to appear for her guest spot added on the deluxe edition of Rouge Carpet Disaster and it’s fiery pit fodder for the capacity crowd. Security are really put through their paces, though never more than during deep cut safeword that turns the crowd into a sea of bodies crested by crowdsurfers almost constantly. With the band decked out in white outfits, they cut striking, larger than life figures buoyed by the constantly shifting displays on their CRT screens and dynamic light show. Vocalist Olli Appleyard is noticeably stunned more than once, regularly telling the crowd “make some noise for yourselves” after they scream back most every word while still bouncing, moshing and pitting with abandon. For their biggest headline show of their career (so far), STATIC DRESS pull out every stop and then some, for an unforgettable evening.
Rating: 10/10
Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in London from Karolina Janikunaite here:
Like STATIC DRESS on Facebook.