Live Review: SHAME & GURR - The Bullingdon, Oxford 19/04/2018

With an award winning debut album and an already expanding fan base across the globe, the punk genius’s SHAME have set out on a smaller UK/European tour before a much larger version planned for November…Tonight’s stop; Oxford!!!

The whole street outside the venue was buzzing with people ready to have a raucous evening full of punk anthems, beer and good times. Knowing pre-gig that it was sold out we were expecting a lot of people but we weren’t expecting how many people crammed themselves into The Bullingdon to see the show…

German indie/punk misfits GURR were tonight’s opener who have been on the whole of SHAME’s European tour so far. With an array of fast paced bangers and a couple slower melodic indie tunes, GURR had the perfect combination; a huge response came during funky sing-a-long tune ‘Klartraum’ with the audience picking up the lyrics with ease! ‘Moby Dick’ and ‘Breathless’ also brought a smile to our faces, both with perfectly crafted but simple verses and then crashing chorus’s; it was a party during every second of their performance!



Then without further ado, the Punk juggernauts SHAME stormed the stage ready to turn the crazy up to 200!! ‘Dust on Trial’ was the opening song from the boys, instantly setting the crowd into a frenzy, mosh pits opening left, right and centre! Before long frontman Charlie was introducing fan favourite ‘One Rizla’ to which he explained was the first song they ever wrote together as a band, it wasn’t long before he had jumped head first into the swirling crowd to finish off the song in style. Countless other bangers from their debut ‘Songs of Praise’ were smashed out this evening including: ‘The Lick’, the slightly calmer ‘Angie’ and ‘Friction’ before letting us hear a brand-new song that they have yet to name; as there is no proper recorded version of that one, you will just have to wait to hear it in all its glory!

Finishing off in style, the infamous ‘Gold Hole’ was the ending song of tonight’s show; no lack of energy from any member of the band with guitarists flying around the stage and jumping off drumkits like kamikaze bombers. Charlie Steen spending more time atop the crowd then the stage showed off where he felt more at home! A cracking show as per usual from SHAME & GURR; hopefully we will be able to catch them on the much bigger November tour and at a few festivals over the summer!!!



Words and Photography by Joe Dick