Knives
Outdated Blue Final, London
twentieth March 2025
Bristol band Knives go to London to carry out a free present as a warm-up for the forthcoming Nice Escape Pageant in Brighton. Keith Goldhanger (phrases) and Robyn Skinner (pictures) report again.
There’s an indication on the unlocked venue door saying that it’s going to open at 7.30pm. We wait patiently to enter East London’s Outdated Blue Final that includes three bands warming up for Could’s Nice Escape Pageant in Brighton. Knives are due on at 7.45pm (sadly we don’t have time for the opposite two bands tonight as a result of a few of us have properties to go to). By 7.40pm one keen punter boldly opens the door and whether or not the venue is prepared or not we’re getting in.
There’s a few dozen folks within the room standing and looking at this Bristol six-piece already on stage, not likely doing something besides (in all probability) discussing their soundcheck that will have ended thirty seconds in the past. At 7.45pm exactly an almighty eruption happens. It’s the sound of Knives in all their glory, the band we noticed take the roof off in Gas at Cardiff’s Sŵn Pageant final October, the band we’ve been making an attempt unsuccessfully to contact to inform them how sensible we expect they’re, and the band that anybody fortunate sufficient to catch inside any one of many UK’s small venues will love for no matter thirty or forty minutes of their lives they’ll decide to.
Such is the vitality this band have it’s debatable whether or not they themselves might final for much longer than this period of time. Knives are a band that bounce round, scream, shout and may depart observers out of breath simply by watching. It’s thrilling to look at and they look like a bunch of people who find themselves actually having enjoyable doing what they do; not merely going by means of the motions earlier than forcing a T-shirt in your face, taking pictures of one another and gathering everybody’s e-mail handle earlier than leaving. Additionally they seem barely stunned by the enjoyment the rising crowd inside The Outdated Blue Final are producing again at them. They’re right here one minute going loopy, and forty minutes later they’re gone…..disappearing into the evening to heaven is aware of the place (in all probability again to the West Nation).
It’s been one other magnificent efficiency. Thrilling, loud, messy, fist-pumping euphoric (submit) punk rock music with a pumping bass and honking saxophone. A number of voices that ebb and circulate at completely different ranges; not too critical and in no way foolish.
With an album about to be launched to the world later this yr on the Marshall label (Remedy?, Nova Twins … the amps and audio system we’ve identified about for many years) it gained’t be lengthy earlier than the crowds are cramming themselves inside venues in bigger numbers to witness these thrilling moments the band serve up.
It hasn’t taken too lengthy for this room to replenish as soon as the band have been in full circulate and when it does it’s famous that we aren’t the one folks within the room being swept off our toes. It’s one other free present, and one which these of us who can’t afford lots of the non-free reveals within the capital in 2025 can’t ignore (particularly if we really feel the necessity to exit each evening and know do what we’re in search of). And this night it’s sufficient to ship us house glad earlier than the 9 O’clock Information begins.
Knives gigs are a thrill a second: a relentless cacophony of wonderful noise that shakes the foundations of the venue in a approach we’ve not skilled since Fucked Up appeared right here a few years in the past. They’ve given us all we wanted for one night.
Go and see them as quickly as you possibly can, fasten your seat belts and put together yourselves for an unforgettable trip.
As somebody as soon as stated: one of the best issues in life are free.
~
Extra Knives info could be discovered right here
Phrases by Keith Goldhanger. Extra writing by Keith on Louder Than Conflict could be discovered at his writer’s archive. You can even discover Keith on Fb Instagram and Bluesky.
Photographs by Robyn Skinner
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