Neck Deep + Wargasm @ o2 Academy 22nd February 2022
Acting as main support to Neck Deep for the evening were British electronic rock duo Wargasm, who have been gaining momentum following a number of high profile festival appearances last summer. Bursting with energy, the band blasted through tracks including ‘Spit’ and ‘Salma Hayek’ to really get the crowd excited for the evening’s headliners. Whilst there were certainly some eyebrows being raised within the packed crowd, the band’s sound complemented by a live guitarist and drummer did well to offer a different tone and mood, adding variation to the show.
After being rescheduled a number of times due to the pandemic, Tuesday evening’s Neck Deep show at the O2 Academy had been a long time coming. Following the release of their fourth studio album ‘All Distortions Are Intentional’, the band have gone from strength to strength in terms of the crowds they can pull, as well as radio airplay and chart success across the world. The show was certainly a reflection of their entire back catalogue with both singles and deeper cuts being highlighted and gaining a similarly raucous reception.
With the stage set up resembling a bedroom, complete with fairy lights, a bed, windows etc to reflect where the band wrote and recorded their early material, it acted as an innovative and engaging visual representation of the bands ambition and scope to really be the biggest band they can be. And that’s what was clear from the evening’s performance, highlighting a band teetering on the edge of playing to 3000 people and quickly moving to 10,000 plus. There was plenty of synchronised spinning guitar playing and even a t shirt gun usually reserved for big arena’s.
From the room filling sing a longs of ‘Sick Joke’, ‘When You Know’ and ‘Lowlife’ to the livelier ‘What Did You Expect’ and ‘Smooth Seas Don’t Make Good Sailors’, the band even treated the Birmingham audience to a rendition of ‘A Part Of Me’ that has been excluded from setlists for the past number of years but still proves a fan favourite as demonstrated by the spine tingling sing along.
Whilst not particularly breaking any new ground sonically, what Neck Deep deliver on is feel good, sing along pop punk anthems, with this show certainly showing that they’re not showing any signs of slowing down soon.
Neck Deep will be appearing at thee Slam Dunk Festival in June of this year
Friday 3rd June – Slam Dunk Festival North – Leeds, UK
Saturday 4th June – Slam Dunk Festival South – Hatfield, UK
They are also embarking on an extensive festival tour encompassing Europe and the US Dates can be found here
Review: Dan Earl
Neck Deep photo courtesy of neckdeepuk.com Copyright: © Steve Gullick
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