Live Review: Puppy & Grove Street Families - The Borderline, London 12/09/2018

Puppy finished their "World Tour Of The UK" at the prestigious Borderline In London and it was packed to rafters with people, fun and mostly importantly of all, great music.

Grove Street Families were up first and they came in hard and fast with something to prove. Guitarist Chris Sanderson tried to get the crowd involved with flying kicks and all round energy that surged throughout the band. Towards the end the crowd were warming to the Southampton based band, after songs such as "Rest In Power", which truly is a song for the headbangers of today. Overall the boys of Grove Street Families got the crowd ready and hungry for Puppy and there is not much more you can ask for than that from the supporting act.

Main Event Time.

The Puppy fans were rabid in there chants for the band before their set began. It was deafening. Finally, Puppy took to the stage and bursted straight into 'Entombed', a beautiful pace setter for the show with its classic Puppy vibes of heavy metal guitars and drums with a stunning high pitch Alt Rock voice. The crowd found their voice extremely quickly throughout and not a single word was sung by Jock (Lead Vocals and Guitar) without at least 10 percent of the crowd singing along. Puppy played three songs off their forthcoming album which is hitting the shelves on January 25th. First up of the trio was a brand-new track "Just Like You" and it brought the house down. It's raw, psychotic energy got the crowd moving and their heads banging. It was wonderful. Next up was ‘The Great Beyond’ and latest release ‘Black Hole’ and they continued the awesome Puppy style of slow builds into their extensive royalty of riffs. After these songs the band got the chance to talk to everyone about their upcoming and “complete” album and slipped into a brand-new song off the album called ‘World Stands Still’. This song was everything a die hard Puppy fan loves about the band, it builds and builds and then hits you with the sweet release of intense madness. Puppy throw everything they have at you in a classic Alt Rock style and it’s hard not to love it. The main set ends with a quickfire mix of ‘My Tree’, ‘Arabella’ and ‘Forever.’ The crowd hung on Jock’s every word and sang each word louder than the last, this is what music is all about, seeing one of your favourite band bash out your favourite song and you sing it right back to them. It was glorious.

Overall Puppy’s show at The Borderline was a fitting end to their “World Tour.” The Kings of riffs put on one hell of a show with superb support from Grove Street Families. If you missed this tour you can catch Puppy on tour again later this year with dangerously heavy King 810. I would recommend it highly.

Words by Alfie Drake and Photography by Hayley Fearnley