Pop punk is alive and well here in the UK, and the clear front-runner and driving force is undoubtedly Neck Deep. The Welsh five-piece has been going strong for nearly a decade, having constantly been on the verge of breaking wide open with the release of each album, becoming fast friends with Blink 182, and being one of those few bands that share almost equal success across the UK and the US. Then the pandemic hit. While most bands took a break during Covid putting nearly all their plans on hold, these guys went the opposite direction and dove in headfirst.
Neck Deep seemed to take advantage of the downtime and turn up the heat. 2020 saw the release of their highly anticipated new album, All Distortions are Intentional, a concept album that critics have praised as the band’s best work. The album produced an unprecedented five singles (That’s entering Def Leppard Hysteria territory!) and took the lockdown world by storm. With tours and face-to-face interviews out the door, they would have to rewrite the playbook by creating music videos from their homes and streaming live on Twitch to talk to and meet fans and promote the album. This is an excellent example of a hungry band that found a creative way to stay connected during “unprecedented times.”
So what would it be like once the world opened back up and live music returned to the UK? What I saw at Brixton was a band at the top of their game. Maybe it was the pent-up energy and frustration of several postponements, perhaps it was the lifting of the pandemic restrictions, or maybe it was the fans finally connecting with something they truly missed for two years.
Either way, it looked to me like Neck Deep had gotten into a one-on-one fistfight with the pandemic, and although a bit metaphorically bloodied and bruised, they had kicked its ass. The unstoppable force that tried to ruin their plans could be viewed as an opportunity to try new things and get even closer to their fans. They ended up coming out on the other side a bit rougher and tougher, but nevertheless determined to make up for the lost time, and the full house at Brixton welcomed them as if they had never left.
The setlist focused primarily on the latest album with an equal number of songs from 2015’s Life’s Not Out to Get You and a rarity or two and other fan favorites peppered in. The songs come across much heavier than they do on the studio albums, which could be a sign of things to come on the next record. As I mentioned before, there’s a newfound energy with these guys that will need to find an outlet sooner than later.
This was a pretty stacked bill regarding the lineup with UK favorites Wargasm playing just before the headliner, which could have easily been confused as a co-headliner, along with current hardcore buzz band Higher Power and Scottish newbies Happydaze. Wargasm were absolutely on fucking fire and will go down as “why is this band not the biggest band in Europe at the moment?” It’s heavy and controversial while being incredibly catchy. That’s a rarity.
Higher Power blew me away as well. These guys sounded like if Rage had been born out of the early Grunge movement but somehow thrust into the post-hardcore scene of the mid-eighties. I thought they were absolutely brilliant. The fact that a hardcore band and an electro-metal band are on the same bill says something about the openness of the band’s following and the bleed-over in genres, and the potential for even more diverse tours moving forward.
WARGASM
HIGHER POWER
HAPPYDAZE
