Gig Review: Don Broco

WHAT. A. NIGHT.

This Thursday I was at Mornington Crescent to witness Broco @ Koko. This was actually my third time seeing Don Broco live and my second time seeing Pure Love (one of the supports) so I thought I could predict most of what would go down - I was wrong.

When my friends and I joined the queue we were just chatting and this man walked past that looked super familiar. When I finally realised that he was the lead singer of Mallory Knox he'd already gone into this pub nearby. Of course, me being me, I went into the pub, found him and had a chat. He's a really really nice and humble guy. I've already written about how fantastic they are (here) and this encounter made me like them even more.

Now, I'd never been to Koko before and when we got inside I wasn't sure if it lived up to the massive hype but it is definitely a beautiful venue. I don't think I can call it my favourite venue just yet though. Anyway, the first support act on was a band called Decade. I wasn't too fussed about seeing them and their first song wasn't really as energetic as I'd hoped but after the first song they turned into a whole new band. By the end of their set I was like "I definitely need to have a look at these guys' music because wow". They definitely did well opening up for two such big bands. And now they have a new fan :).

And then all hell broke loose. MY GOODNESS! PURE LOVE!! Pure love were not a support act, they were competition! By the end of their set I wasn't sure if I could even hack the rest of the night - WHAT A PERFORMANCE! During the first song, the guitarist (Jim Carroll) was already surfing the crowds, guitar in hand, middle finger up at all health and safety regulations. Straight away this made people take notice and the crowd started to fill up. During the second song the lead singer (Frank Carter - formerly Gallows' frontman) joined Jim on the floor parting the crowds as if he were Moses. Frank and Jim spent 95% of the set in the crowd. After a couple of songs in the crowd Jim appeared again, this time up in the balcony for his guitar solo during "Bury My Bones" and after his solo Frank asked to be lifted towards him by the crowd and then proceeded to scale the walls to get to the balcony. Madness! The crowd bellowed for him to jump and just as he was about to leap from the balcony the security guards stopped him (boo).

Amongst many other theatrics of the night, they asked for a circle pit in the middle of the floor, then started passing the drum kit parts into the middle of the pit; set it up and the whole band played the last few songs of the gig from within the circle pit. After this set I was completely massacred, I've never in my life been so shattered after a support act. They hyped up the crowd so much that even when they were off-stage and the interlude music was playing the crowd was still moshing to that!

Then the main event, the lights dimmed, the Broco lads strolled onstage - Rob looking more muscular than ever. And opened with their title track "Priorities". As soon as the beat dropped I was being thrown about everywhere as bodies leapt all over the place scrambling to get a good view. After their phenomenal intro, they belted out some quality tunes - "Whole Truth", "Here's The Thing" and "Beautiful Morning" and then of course the inevitable hell-raiser "Thug Workout". If you're already a fan of DB you will know that whenever this song is played live, male fans (a.k.a the push-up squad) must get into the middle of the pit and do push-ups. Well on Thursday, Rob was feeling daring and made the guys try a push-up pyramid (basically a tower of guys doing one collective push-up). The tower was almost 7ft tall haha. Was quite crazy, but they managed it (assisted by Rob Damiani's little brother whom I spoke to in the crowd - nice guy). After "Thug Workout" they had a a good mix of songs from the album and also the their first EP "Big Fat Smile" including songs like "I'm Good" and "Back In The Day", and finally ending with "Actors".

By this time, my shirt had be ripped off three times, I'd dislocated my shoulder, I'd fallen on top of a few people, sat on top of a few shoulders and some how, I was still going haha. As it was the last song I decided that I couldn't leave the gig without crowd-surfing so I crowd-surfed to the front; did actually kick someone in the face so if that person is reading this, I am very sorry. Then I got back into the crowd in time for their encore of "Yeah Man", "Hold On" and "Fancy Dress". They absolutely smashed these last three songs, I just wish I hadn't been so shattered so that I could've gotten involved a bit more. But that doesn't change the quality of the performance. The boys truly commanded the stage - and if you ask me, there's nothing like a London crowd when you're playing such an insane set. Absolutely electric night! That is the kind of energy more artist/bands need to acquire.

Overall rating - 8.5/10

Here are some pictures from the madness on Thursday night...