Live Review: Foxing / Pianos Become The Teeth / Kamikaze Girls - Bush Hall, London 10/08/2018

This year has seen many amazing album releases from so many bands of all different genres, and many maturing and changing their sound and delving into different styles for themselves. Two bands that have done this beautifully include Pianos Become The Teeth and Foxing, and we managed to catch them both on the same stage last Friday at Bush Hall in London. With Kamikaze Girls supporting, and PBTT and Foxing co-headlining, the room was buzzing with energy the entire night.

Kamikaze Girls bring solid honest punk tunes to the stage that confront important topics, and personal matters surrounding subjects such as anxiety, mental health and addictions. As they came on stage, they already had a crowd built up for them, and with no barrier, the audience were as close to the stage as they could be shouting many words back to them. Being a support act of only two people is never easy, and making use of the stage becomes a hard task for the singer alone, but the band made it work and showed the crowd that it’s not numbers that matter, it’s passion for what they do. The band played songs such as ‘teenage feelings’ and ‘black coffee’, amongst unfortunate technical difficulties with the lead singers guitar meaning we had to miss out on two hits from the duo.

Pianos Become The Teeth opened with ‘Charisma’, one of their biggest hits from their latest album release according to Spotify. Straight away, the crowd sang every word back and went insane, and it was already clear to see the release of ‘Wait For Love’ earlier this year was ultimately well received, and the slightly newer sound was welcomed by everyone there. This being said, the crowd also still went wild for older tracks such as ‘Hiding’ which was released around 5 years ago, but the band still carry their emotion through right from their first record. Even whilst the songs may seem slightly more tame compared to some of the first songs they ever released, they still managed to pack so much energy into their set with the lead singer making use of the entire stage and handing the mic to the crowd as they screamed lyrics to new and old songs. As the band played Hiding, you could see just how much the band meant to some members of the crowd as they all piled together at the front of the stage whilst lead singer Kyle Durfey held everyone in his arms as much as he could and included them in the music. 

After Piano’s set, it was time for Foxing to headline the stage on the release day of their new album ‘Nearer My God’. Playing new songs on the release date of an album is always a risky move. There’s always the chance the crowd won’t like it, or may not interact with the music as well being unfamiliar with it, but boy did Foxing know how to keep the crowd happy. Having already released singles from the album, these were some of the main songs within the set that people had clearly learnt the words to already. Songs like ‘Slapstick’ and ‘Game Shark’ got everyone singing along, but what seemed to be a crowd favourite was ‘Nearer My God’, as the crowd literally screamed every word. The band didn’t forget their roots, and also played songs such as ‘Night Channels’ and ‘Magdelane’, and showed a complete change of sound with the very mellowed and intimate ‘Three On A Match’, which left the entire room in silence. 

Whilst the band may have changed their sound slightly with their new release, it really helped to offer a huge variation of sounds which kept things fresh and exciting. One minute you’d be wanting to dance along to ‘Slapstick’ as singer Conor Murphy also danced to the track on stage, and then the next minute you’d be stunned into silence and filled with emotion. Overall, the bands worked well together and Foxing and Piano’s made the perfect co-headlining partners as they both delivered deep levels of emotion and passion.

Words and Photography by Hayley Fearnley