WARGASM - Live in Nottingham - Review

WARGASM – Live in Nottingham

WARGASM are one of the most talked about rock bands of the moment. Their provocative sound has gotten them award nominations, sets at major music festivals around the world and collaborations with the likes of Enter Shikari. They have become one of the most exciting metal bands in the industry, and they’re brilliant.

The band have just released EXPLICIT: The MiXXXtape a few weeks ago, and the title of that release symbolises WARGASM’s sound (and name) perfectly, explicit Nu-metal fused with electronic production. The band are unlike anything the world has ever seen, and they could be on track to becoming one of the biggest rock bands in the world. Tonight, they play Nottingham’s Rescue Rooms, a show which I’m sure will be filled with violent mosh pits, batshit crazy production and an alternative euphoria that will undoubtedly fill the four walls of Rescue Rooms with blood, sweat and orgasmic feels (see what I did there?!).

The big highlight of the show was WARGASM’s remarkable stage presence! It was strong, formidable and incredibly passionate, especially Milkie Way (yes, that is her name), who dominated the www. Sam Matlock was also excellent, he was swinging his microphone around, catching it in his hand. A typical move for rock/pop-punk bands, but was fantastic nevertheless. They were running around the whole stage, showcasing their remarkable talent. Both Way and Matlock’s vocals were very strong, with Matlock’s sensational screaming vocal technique working well with Way’s vocal range and passionate performance. Both voices complimented each other perfectly. To add onto this, the band chemistry against both Way and Matlock and WARGASM’s session musicians was sublime. Everyone who was on stage had such passion, the instrumentation throughout the set worked wonderfully and they played very well together.

WARGASM also know how to work a crowd, as their interaction with the 450-capacity venue was exquisite. The audience was at the heart of their set, putting on one hell of a show for them, and it worked so well. The band encouraged mosh pits, crowd surfing (despite someone being kicked out for that very reason during support act, Scene Queen’s set) and everything else, with the venue getting very hot and sweaty, whether they were interacting with the band or not, despite it raining and being 14° outside

The setlist was mostly strong but had some interesting decisions, such as the opening track being Filthy/Gorgeous by Scissor Sisters for some reason, but it got the crowd anticipatory for when the band were ready to start their set. WARGASM’s set showed off the very best from the band’s impressive discography thus far, with tracks like Salma Hayek, Pyro Pyro and Scratchcard Feeling being highlights of the show. The best part was their cover of N*E*R*D’s track, Lapdance, a song that I love and a cover I had heard before as they’d recorded it as a single, but the energy from that performance was through the roof and something that stuck with me from the second they finished their performance until writing this review. I’ve never been a fan of artists doing covers, but WARGASM really knocked it out of the park with this one, and their originals were very strong too. The only thing was that during the middle section of the set, it felt very samey, and as a result, the performance dipped. They didn’t feel as interesting as they did when the duo entered the stage, but this was sorted from the second they started performing Scratchcard Feeling, and it only got higher from there.

The lighting design was fantastic, filled with strong and effective strobe lights, lasers and everything else worked in the band’s favour, adding to the brilliant nature of their set. The lighting may have been brilliant, but the same could not be said for the sound, as the mixing was just terrible at points, not the first time we’ve had this issue at the Rescue Rooms, with Alfie Templeman’s three-to-four-star set turning into a two-star review as a result of it, and the same thing happened when I saw Soccer Mommy back in August with my friend at the same venue, again, making a brilliant set quite bad in places. It improved midway through, for about two songs, and then came back, with an even more terrible sound. Luckily, however, WARGASM still made it work, especially Milkie, who brought her A-game and made that issue one the audience could (thankfully) ignore.

Overall, WARGASM were fantastic. They had some great lighting, even better band chemistry and some remarkable stage presence. But its setlist curation and the awful sound mixing brought their set down considerably. Whereas I would usually roast this issue much more, I’m not going to scold this issue too much on this occasion, as they didn’t seem to let it bother them and distracted the crowd with their formidable stature and performance, making the most of a bad situation. These guys are the future of metal, and with work, they can be the greatest metal artists out there in the 21st century. They’re not quite there just yet, but this is a great start.

Ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Setlist: