Viagra Boys| Boko Yout
Brixton Academy (London)
6th Could 2025
Having just lately launched their fourth album, Viagra Boys return to London for his or her largest present within the capital to date.
An evening of rowdy, soiled, scuzzy, mid-paced rock ‘n’ roll awaits us as we enter the most important London venue that a few of us can nonetheless really feel completely happy visiting. It takes some time for the 4 or 5 thousand to refill each accessible spot inside this huge area, which implies that, sadly, some are going to overlook fellow Swedish band Boko Yout.
The 5 piece arrive on stage carrying what seems like matching boy scout uniforms (gentle blue shirts, neckerchiefs, brief trousers, a minimum of one hat between them) and explode into life with a terrific vocal efficiency from the entrance man, who drives their post-punk songs (in any other case described by the band themselves as Afro grunge) alongside some spectacular bass taking part in from a person who can’t appear to face nonetheless. Every music appears to have a refrain that every one 5 members are a part of vocally. It’s an lively and playful efficiency that unites the watching crowd instantly and manages to create multiple sing-along second. A formidable efficiency from a comparatively unknown band within the UK.
By the point the principle act arrive, the swarm of our bodies across the entrance of the stage are already stumbling over themselves. It appears to take an age for the band to reach, however as soon as they do and launch themselves into Man Made Of Meat (from the latest album Viagr Aboys), you may inform that for the subsequent hour or two we’ll little question be subjected to the dregs of luke-warm pints being thrown within the air and crowd surfers coming at us from all angles.
It’s a slowish begin till you realise that these songs from a band now 4 albums previous by no means do threaten to run away with themselves at nice pace. The focus in fact is US-born Sebastian Murphy, tracksuit-trousered and naked chested from the beginning, with lyrics delivered with humour and readability in entrance of a boisterous crowd who, in the event that they’re not throwing themselves into (or on high of) one another, are all singing alongside to each phrase being spat out. The night turns into a kind of events you’ll keep in mind each time you hear a Viagra Boys music at dwelling. It’s like watching Iggy fronting Black Insurgent Motorbike Membership and reminds us of how fortunate we have been to have seen Lux Inside greater than as soon as throughout our teenage years. This can be a comparable expertise, however with tattoos as a substitute of excessive hair and excessive heels.
Electronics sneak into every music and threaten to take over however by no means do. There’s a mix of crashing riffs and occasional dance beats, the occasional saxophone, flute, some spectacular pounding bass strains, some old fashioned punk rock foundations that every music appears to be constructed upon, and, in fact, the useless pan humorous method to all this.
Sebastian stands earlier than us telling us how he’s gone from smoking meth amphetamines in a slender alley to this. He’s fortunate to nonetheless be round to inform us this story. There’s nonetheless an edge to his manner as he stumbles across the stage like an exhausted uncle at a marriage who nobody will ever recommend ought to be taking it simple. From begin to end he manages an ideal vocal efficiency that’s of nice significance to any Viagra Boys present. One or two indicators of a person with a drug-fuelled historical past may be seen. However one solely has to have a look at the huge quantity of exhibits the band have been taking part in just lately, and what they’ve forward of them over the subsequent few months, to persuade yourselves that this efficiency is pushed by principally adrenaline, enthusiasm and the continued intention to entertain on the stage the band have to date managed over the previous decade.
Drugs fFr Horses from the most recent album is the calm earlier than the storm. It’s one of many night’s many highlights because the tempo slows down earlier than Sports activities and Analysis Chemical substances finish the efficiency on an explosive be aware. A few encores trigger these nonetheless with any vitality left to surf the gang (alongside the odd band member who’ve determined that they’ll not resist being the place the motion is), earlier than the social gathering ends and the crawl again to the tube station begins.
It’s a refreshing and sincere efficiency from the band who seem to understand the corporate of an enormous crowd lapping up each second, becoming a member of in with every music and including to the chaos occurring in entrance of them.
There’s one other sixty exhibits between now and the band’s subsequent London present, which we anticipate can be in entrance of greater than double tonight’s crowd (Alexandra Palace early subsequent yr). That is fairly an unbelievable achievement for a band that appear to have the steadiness between not taking themselves too critically and ensuring the paying crowds get what is predicted nearly proper.
Viagra Boys appear to be in command of themselves and are bringing us all alongside on the journey with them. It’s an exciting journey, whether or not caught in the course of the mayhem on the entrance, or for any informal observer standing again at arm’s size; one thing the big venues can accommodate. Particularly for these not notably wishing to journey dwelling in beer soaked clothes blended with a mix of our personal and everybody else’s sweat – proof, as if proof was ever wanted, that Viagra Boys seem like 1000’s of individuals’s favorite rowdy, soiled, scuzzy, mid-paced rock ‘n’ roll band in 2025.
Excellent stuff.
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