Pete Wall
Opening the night, Leeds metalcore champions Killing Me Softly have the unenviable task of playing to a room that is barely a third full. For a band with such an immediate and confrontational sound, their set starts out feeling fairly understated—clean vocals in the mix, a low-key stage presence, and calls to the crowd that take a while to land. About ten minutes in, things begin to pick up as their trademark intensity draws the nodding heads forward and they pay homage to headliners Poison the Well, who are acknowledged as a formative influence on the band. The set showcases four of the six tracks from their excellent new EP To Forever Fall Through God’s Safety Net as well as set staple ‘Piano Wire Smile’ and it’s hard to deny the ferocity and intent of the writing. Still, the ending is abrupt: no sign-off, just a stealthy exit after 23 minutes of what was billed as a 30-minute slot. Whipping up the energy of a room as sizeable as Electric is no small task, but it felt like an opportunity not fully grasped by a band on the rise.
By the time Bodyweb hit the stage, the venue has filled out and the energy lifts immediately. They barrel straight in with a bigger, fuller sound than the openers and aren’t shy about working the crowd: “I’m gonna need some energy from you” is the challenge put forward by vocalist Louis Hardy and it doesn’t fall on deaf ears as the room feels locked in and ready to go off. The set veers into drum-and-bass breaks, snaps back into heavy riffing, and twists through a genre blend that at times feels reminiscent of the genre jui jitsu pulled off with such aplomb by Brighton’s El Moono—hard to pin down, but always compelling. Between strobe-lit heft, whiplash-inducing stage chat like “We’re on tour with Poison the Well. This is crazy! This one’s about genocide”, the whole performance has a raw unpredictability to it. Rousing, punchy, and at times impossible to categorise, Bodyweb left the impression that they are a band testing their limits in real time.
Anyone who was at Outbreak Festival last summer will be well aware that nearly 30 years in, there is still massive love for Poison the Well in the UK. The set at BEC Arena in 2024 saw the show stopped and restarted during set closer ‘Nerdy’ for fear that the front stage was going to collapse under the weight of a rabid stage invasion as hundreds of fans engulfed the band and screamed back every word. Shows like that aren’t forgotten in a hurry, and tonight the band look re-energised and loaded with conviction as they launch into The Opposite of December’s opening salvo of ‘12/23/93’ and ‘A Wish For Things That Work’.
Given that this tour is a celebration of the band’s seminal heart-on-sleeve classic debut album, it goes without saying that the outpouring of love for the nine tracks that comprise that record takes centre stage. For many The Opposite of December is a record that perfectly encapsulates what it is to be young and lovelorn. It’s a time capsule that bursts open every time the record is spun and it reaches dizzying peaks at key emotional crescendos. Tonight everything hits hard and the night is further adrenalised by a mid-set rendition of new single ‘Trembling Level’ which goes down as well as a lot of the older material. The reception to the track serves to further crank up the feel-good energy in the room. The band slaloms between The Opposite of December cuts and standouts like ‘Botchla’, ‘Ghostchant’, and ‘For a Bandaged Iris’ from across their back catalogue with massive hooks and jagged riffs firing the pit into a frenzy that sees complete strangers embracing each other before launching into the next collective chorus without missing a beat. The show may not be a sell-out, but those in the room are all-in.
By the time the closing one-two combination of ‘My Mirror No Longer Reflects’ and ‘Nerdy’ hit, it’s pretty apparent that the crowd would happily live in these moments for another hour. For a band this deep into their career to feel this electrifying is life-affirming stuff. What could have felt like one last nostalgic reconnection with the heartbreaks and struggles of youth instead feels like the first step into a new era for Poison the Well.