Live Review: Soft Play- NX, Newcastle 26/10/2024
Punk duo Soft Play finally returned to Newcastle after what had been ages. With support from Panic Shack, they turned NX upside down.
Female powerpunk outfit Panic Shack opened the night with heavy riffs, punchy lyrics and warmed up an already rapidly warming NX. The punk rock five piece, fronted by four fantastic and energetic female guitarists brought their short but sweet anthems to Newcastle, screaming about all the things they are passionate about. They opened their set with one of their first ever releases ‘I Don’t Really Like It’, and followed with some of my personal favourites that fell within the bracket of singing about things they care about; ‘Meal Deal’ and ‘Jiu Jits You’. This band did not just play their set, but performed a choreographed show including some synchronised moving and floor choreographics fuelled by bags of energy.
The Welsh group formed in 2018, have been supported by Fred Perry, ended up in the charts, and have been on tour with Soft Play for the past few weeks. They’ve been winning souls one at a time with their fanatic live performance. Their energy got reciprocated by an adoring audience of old and new fans of which some were wholeheartedly singing along. Although the Newcastle audience was still getting to grips with the fact that they were at a punk gig, the band didn’t let that stop them and gave it their all. I wasn’t sold on these feisty musicians when I saw them live in Stockton, with their Newcastle performance they have slowly started to win me over.
The main event hit NX like thunder and lightning, infinitely energetic punk duo Soft Play made the stage and the entire building they were in theirs, and had their audience eat from the palm of their hands. Although there were only two of them on stage, “because nobody wanted to join the fucking band”, they have never failed to make as much, if not more, noise a full band could make. A stamina and WPM (words per minute) that is hard to match, and a bond that is visible on and off stage, Isaac and Laurie make for a fantastic duo to experience live. Having been a band since 2012 and having toured the world together, the two are well attuned to each other, and to their audience. Most of their fans were able to sing along to every word, the relationship between Soft Play and their audience is quite clearly mutual.
The two started their set with a lot of the songs taken from the first album they released under their new musical moniker. ‘Heavy Jelly’ is filled with tongue-in-cheek, not-so-serious thunderous rock tracks of which ‘Punk’s Dead’ and ‘Bin Juice Disaster’ were favourites. They sang about worms, John Wick, and more seriously; mental health. ‘Everything and Nothing’ is a heartfelt and important message that was performed in an emotional way by the two that have both had their challenges in life. After the song they shared a hug that nearly got me all teary-eyed, before they erupted into another slightly less emotive track.
Before they were called Soft Play, they were known as Slaves, and as Slaves they released some incredible bangers that got them to where they are now; sold out venues all over the world. They performed personal favourites ‘Sockets’, ‘Spit It Out’, ‘The Hunter’ and ‘Fuck The Hi-Hat’ and entered the pit floor multiple times, it seemed the idea had been to perform some songs on the ground but the crowd was that bit too excited to be so close to two rockstars, so they ended up just using the stage instead… Their history, the inspiration behind their tracks, and the way they perform their art and interact with their audience has always surpassed expectations and so it did again in Newcastle. Their performance has been called “parkour” and their sounds are most of all thunderous, undeniably loud and fast paced, but through that rough exterior we spotted a peek of the two men that were simply trying to live their dreams. Friends first, musicians second, and winners of hearts third. I already can’t wait for their return to Newcastle!
Words by Laura Rosierse
Photography by Celia Medina
