Live Review: Mallory Knox - Electric Ballroom, London 18/10/2024
Mallory Knox and Mikey Chapman finally make their long-awaited return to London, with support from Call Me Amour and Gürl.
It’s been five years since Mallory Knox last played London — seven if you count by the last show with all five original members. And yet, from the sold out shows and general reaction of fans, it’s like they’d never left. Mikey Chapman, Sam Douglas, James Gillett, Joe Savins and Dave Rawling have released three studio albums, with a Sam-fronted fourth self-titled offering coming in the wake of Mikey’s departure back in 2018; for this short tour (and hopefully the burgeoning start of the band’s full return), though, all focus was on 2014’s ‘Asymmetry’. Not all the album was played — the setlist contained neither sight nor sound of ‘Fire’, ‘The Remedy’, or any of the album’s three deluxe edition bonus tracks — but there was more than enough for fans of the Cambridge group’s second outing to sink their teeth into.
But first, the supports. Gürl, coming on stage after a lights-down, speaker-blared, cheesy-crowd-sing-along of Nickelback’s ‘How You Remind Me’, the quartet from Bristol, with frontman Joshua Dalton’s monochrome bowling jacket-esque ensemble front and centre, had their work cut out for them from the get-go. Anyone could be on stage — but they weren’t Mikey, and they’re sure weren’t Mallory. On top of that, the electronic-tinged vocals at first seemed discordant on top of the thunderous drums and roaring bass — though by the time the staccato drums of opener ‘Last Night I Read Your Diary’ or the thought-drowning scream of ‘Gucci Honey Dirty Money’ tore through the venue, it all seemed to fall into place.
Having toured at the tail end of last year with Against The Current, as well as The Hara earlier in the year, and also boasting their own sold-out headline set at The Underworld just across the street, Call Me Amour are no strangers to playing London — and their lack of nerves was evident in just the sheer glee that Harry Redford and co. showed as they raced on stage and tore into their set. From the first second of harsh, throaty screams of ‘Happy Hell’, the band showed both why they deserved their spot as Mallory’s main support, but also the insane amount of growth that the band have done over even just the past year. The polish and pizazz was palpable, the bleached-white hair of Redford jutting out of the abyss of fans as he ventured into the crowd for ‘Chasing Bugs’, even as mic connection issues led to him feeling like he ‘was on a zoom call’, while the sudden appearance of Mikey for ‘Good Day’ showed the firm friendship between the groups, and the pure fun that the tour represents.
The final duo of the dubstep-esque ‘Bloom’, ghoulishly blood-red lights bursting from the stage to backlight the serpentine swaying of bassist Mikey Gatt, and closer ‘Girl on the Wall’, Redford singing at — and quickly escaping from — the centre of the budding mosh pit gave the crowd just a taste of what Call Me Amour has to offer. Catch them back with Set It Off in February.
And, finally, it was time. With a building cinematic instrumental track helping to ramp up the tension — and a tongue-in-cheek airing of ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’ swiftly serving to light the mood — Electric Ballroom felt like a simmering pot primed to boil over. Or, Electric Boiler-room, now it’s been retrospectively renamed for this review due to the sheer metric tonnes of sweat dripping off of everyone in the seemingly unventilated room.
Opener ‘Ghost in the Mirror’, then, served to open the floodgates. With pits opening around the venue from the get-go, the five years of pent up, Mallory Knox-fuelled energy came happily to the fore; the content crowd sing-alongs of ‘Getaway’ and the rowdy ‘Beggars’ only added to it, a chorus of voices and screams aiming to drown out the band.
Mallory Knox’s show rested in an enviable position — because of the band’s absence over the past few years, it meant that they didn’t have any new tracks to try and sell fans on, and with even 2019’s self-titled album being discounted entirely, the setlist was left just with tracks that have already been reforged in the live music mantle over the past decade or so. Essentially, everyone knows all the words, whether the track was big or small.
And all this was before the sweet, sweet sounds of anthemic fan favourite ‘Sugar’ dropped frighteningly earlier into the set, a catalyst to really let everyone loose.
Elsewhere, the strobe lights of ‘Wake Up’, the band’s ferocity just daring the crowd to get moving, duelled with the likes of the slow-paced, rocky ballad ‘Lonely Hours’ or the arguably catchiest tune on the album, ‘Shout At The Moon’; an encore of the angsty, rocky ‘Better Off Without You’, and the melodic ‘She Took Him To The Lake’, Mikey washed in pink as the gentle echoing instrumentals and emotive vocals quickly built up to a fiery, frantic finish, helped round off the night, before a final showing of Signals’ ‘Lighthouse’, a thousand plus voices roaring along, brought their first show back in London to a close. Hopefully not their last, this time — discounting their added-by-demand extra show in Islington just two days later!
Catch them at their newly announced Cambridge hometown show in December, or on tour supporting friends You Me At Six on their farewell tour in March. Good to have you back guys.
Words by James O’Sullivan
Photography by Abigail Shii
