LIVE: The Front Bottoms’ Champagne Jam @ O2 Forum Kentish Town

While outside the streets fill with tinsel clad revellers, the Front Bottoms are throwing their own Christmas party. The final-ish night of their UK tour (they added an extra date after tonight’s show sold out) had been declared Champagne Jam: the British incarnation of one day festival curated by

LIVE: Teenage Wrist / Paerish / Mouth Culture @ Oslo

Photo Credit: Joe Calixto Time means nothing at a Teenage Wrist show. Not for the fans, who all seem to be bearded men in plaid, not for the chilly weather outside, and definitely not for Teenage Wrist. Their live shows occupy a space in our collective imagining of the

Brutus, Karin Park @ Islington Assembly Hall, London

LIVE: Sleep Token / Health @ OVO Arena Wembley

Photo Credit: Andy Ford This is no casual crowd at Sleep Token’s Wembley Arena show. Tickets sold out within ten minutes of going on sale some six months ago, and even though it’s nine days earlier than the mainstream day, this is our Christmas. Fishnets and face paint offer

The Used, The Home Team, Honey Revenge @ The Marble Factory, Bristol

LIVE: The Used / The Home Team / Honey Revenge @ O2 Forum Kentish Town

Outside the Forum, teenagers in face paint huddle together like baby penguins, hoods and occasionally plastic bags on their heads to protect their neon hair from the stinging winter rain. While The Used are ambivalent about being labelled an emo band (they’ve insisted on interviews that they’re just “a

Have Mercy – ‘Numb’

Have Mercy are finishing their 2023 on a high note. After a four year absence, the Baltimore alt-rockers are sober, healthier, older and wiser, and, most importantly, they’re still friends. “There’s a bond between us that’s undeniable,” vocalist and guitarist Brian Swindle says. “I think that’s something you can’t

Hot Milk, Witch Fever, Modern Error @ Academy, Manchester

LIVE: Hot Milk @ Kentish Town Forum

Hot Milk have gathered their tribe around them and descended upon North London. In the hundred metres or so between the station and the venue, every pedestrian you spot sports a beanie, post-emo piercings and inventive eyeliner highlighting wide-eyed anticipation. Do Han Mee and Jim Shaw deserve this level

LIVE: Babymetal @ The Roundhouse, London

“A long time ago, in a heavy metal galaxy far, far away,” a cinematic voice intones onscreen as a Japanese man in a magikarp hat raises his glowsticks in heady anticipation at the front of the stage, “the heavy metal fox god chose three spirits and summoned them to