One of the UK’s hottest metal bands of 2014 plays sold out UK tour culminating in one of their biggest ever shows at London’s famous Koko venue in Camden. Yes, of course we’re talking about Bury Tomorrow, and of course Rock Sins had to be there, so we sent James along to take in the action.
First band Rocksins are able to catch of the night having missed ‘Slaves’ are In Hearts Wake (7) who certainly have the musicianship but lack the stagecraft and level of audience engagement for such a large room as the Koko. Although they do start to warm up halfway through their half hour set it’s still a solid, rather than impressive showing.
A substantially higher pitch of voices greet Hands like Houses (6) who, equally, put in a solid showing but without anything more substantial than a smattering of good rock songs. It’s all a bit too “nice” with a lack of serious heft to the music. There are very few standout moments with tonight’s performance being further eroded by the surroundings of a much heavier billing that does them absolutely no favours.
Bury Tomorrow (8) had one hell of a year. Tonight is just another milestone on the meteoric rise of one of Britain’s hottest, and most promising, metal bands with all the tickets sold out on the doors and kids packed onto the floor of the Koko. It would be a catastrophic performance indeed that could derail the atmosphere tonight and Bury Tomorrow are far from catastrophic. Opening with an unbelievably good triple punch of Man on Fire, Royal Blood and An Honourable Reign the scene is set for a tight and accomplished headline performance.
From the off the pit is a blur of circle-pitting bodies and venue-wide walls of death all encouraged eagerly by frontman Daniel Winter-Bates. Yet it’s not just solely about the pit tonight; like the best live bands Bury Tomorrow’s strength is their ability to connect seamlessly with a full room of people including those who might prefer to prop up the bar than run in circles and so it proves yet again tonight. It may be a bit short at just shy of an hour; the gig finishing at the ridiculously early time of 9:45 but it’s not really a problem when a full 14 song set is aired tonight.
Tonight is what can only be described as a triumph. The huge anticipation for tonight is matched fully by the calibre of Bury Tomorrow’s performance that, while it may not be the very best that Bury Tomorrow are capable of is far from a dud. It’s also one of, if not THE biggest headliners Bury Tomorrow have done to date and provides the fitting pinnacle to an absolutely unbelievable year for this band.
