Live Review: State Champs - Underworld, London 19/06/2019

Fresh off a monster set at this year’s Download Festival, State Champs took to the iconic Underworld in Camden and it did not disappoint.

First up was the Australian pop-punk band Yours Truly, who was also at this year’s Download Festival. Yours Truly were a vibrant, energy-filled bundle of fun and a great way to kick off the night of pop-punky goodness. Playing popular hits such as “High Hopes” and songs off their latest EP “Afterglow”. Speaking of the latter, “Afterglow” a joyous track filled with blitzing guitars, powerful vocals and brought the bands infectious personality to the forefront of their performance. Yours Truly smashed the set and I can’t wait to catch them again when they return to the UK.

Leading up to the almighty State Champs hitting stage, the packed out and sold out Underworld was singing along to the classic pop punk tunes that were playing over the sound system. It was at this point I thought that the show could get quite lively. I was wrong. The Camden crowd were so energetic they made the Fast and The Furious franchise look like Downton Abbey. It stared with State Champs bursting onto the stage, to massive ovation and diving straight into “Criminals”. If you have never heard a State Champs song before, firstly have been living under a rock with Patrick Star and no WiFi connection? And secondly the best way I can described the band to you is State Champs are the perfect band for an American 90’s raunchy comdey that has a charachter called Chad who is having a house party and needs a band to play in living room and I love them for that reason. State Champs are fun, enthralling and know how make any gig special and happy place to be. I did not see anyone throught out the whole night looking like they weren’t enjoying themselves to the sound heavy but joyful guitars. Lead singer Derek Discanio was in superb form acting as bastion of electructy throughout the whole evening. The only time the show slowed down for any amount of time was when unfortunalty a young lady was knocked out by a crowd surfer, however the band notice extremely quickly and credit to them for stopping the show to make sure the girl was safe and even all went off stage to wish her well, it was wholesome. The set burst back into life after this short interlude and contuined with a renewed life. Classic songs such as “All You Are Is History”, “Simple Existance” and “Secrets” were the highlight of the night along with a masterfull crowd and a perfect note for note musical performance. There will not be a night at The Underworld that tops this in ages. Its fair State Champs… I’m not getting over this.

Words and Photography by Alfie Drake