They start as they mean to go on, all gritty guitar lines and brash rock from the era of muscle cars with Loup Garou, and it feels like they’ve acquired more of a garage edge since the last time they graced our shores. Mars Fever sends us grooving and glitching onto another guitar planer, building with classic irresistible LA rock power, before lead single SOA (Sense Of Adventure) kidnaps us for a a road trip through the desert compressed into five minutes with neon splashes of guitar solo and gut-shaking drum breakdowns. There’s such an evocative quality in every track, hooking us up to an imagined night on Sunset Strip with each rapid fire chord.

Crymwav @ Hope & Anchor, London - 2026.03.20 by Pauline Di Silvestro

Crymwav @ Hope & Anchor, London - 2026.03.20 by Pauline Di Silvestro

“LA’s similar to London in that it’s a cultural melting pot,” grins frontman Roger Deering,  “and that’s the way we fucking like it.” His affinity for the capital means we’re treated to their latest single, Everything Turns Grey, upping the tempo and the pressure with anthem qualities and furious guitar rolls. Surfing A Crymwav, which has to be considered their origin song, slices like a shark through still waters, a mission statement popping with total cool and squealing guitar. Crymwav’s sound bridges the cities, and eras, with ease as we’re gripped at every sonic turn they take.

Menacing vintage sludge  gives way to warming choruses on Contagious, and flies the flag of the distinct identity which Crymwav have carved out: dark, catchy and optimistic despite the smog of distortion with a triumphal finish. It’s not all serious, and that’s why we love Crymwav. They swing into the fun territory of the heavy rock sound with ease on songs like the ballsy, swaggering American Carnage,  packed with roaring solos and bursting sense of fun that surges and climbs with our cheers. A short set leaves us begging for more. Encore Speak No Evil provides a blistering finish with a rhythm like a nail stuck in your tyre and a roar to match, a chiming bridge and a glitzy melodic send off like the city skyline emerging from the fog.

Crymwav’s annual trips to the UK have become a highlight of the year for fans of the heavy and timeless end of the rock spectrum, and there’s no way they’re slowing down any time soon. Roll on next year, when their juggernaut pulls into town again and we’ve got the chance to check out the finest in LA Rock.

A review of Crymwav live at the Hope and Anchor, Islington on 20th March 2026. Words by Kate Allvey, photography by Pauline Di Silvestro

Big Special @ Roundhouse

Big Special @ Roundhouse (Louise Phillips)

GANS prove a welcome surprise on support, with flute solos into sax solos sparking a bombastic, speeding retro grit on In Time. Just when you’ve got a handle on their sound, they veer into another intriguing direction, with long instrumentals taking us by the hand down urban alleyways from one song to the next. Laying on the synth for Nightwalking lets our euphoria surface before the riot that is I Think I Like You, everything they touch powered by an irrepressible sense of innovation and motion. Drummer Euan Woodman jumps into the crowd for last song, his vocals echoing under the blue light, samples rattling as a raving whirlpool ripples from him, ensuring that GANS leave a lasting impression in our minds.

Striding out, Big Special offer roses to the crowd, endearing themselves to us before they even blast a note. Black Country Gothic provides a rowdy start, jolting between rousing polemic and that gorgeous blues voice, endlessly driven onwards by the drumbeat. They’re the definition of grassroots minimalism used to create the maximum sound. Joe Hicklin’s everyman monologue for Hug A Bastard makes Big Special feel gentler and more authentic than their contemporaries but with a firm rein on what makes the mundane great.

The first lightning moment arrives via This Here Ain’t Water, the sound of the apocalypse brewing over the Midlands, swooping through iconic singalong lines and spoken word like a harbinger, before the stage virtually crackles with power for Black Dog White Horse. These songs alone make for a masterful performance that grasps and shakes you, but the way that Sluglife burns in the night, with a roar and a plea which demands through its rises and falls and a drifting loveliness just cements the feeling that we’re watching a band who are, for want of a better word, something ‘Special’. It’s hard to believe that Big Special have only existed as a band for four years, but as Hicklin takes a single spotlight for Dragged Up A Hill (And Thrown Down The Other Side), adding crashes and clashing corners to the verses with a tense, vulnerable growl that creeps into his vocals with each mighty wail, their progress and impact is undeniable.

Of course, it’s not all emotional rawness, though Big Special aren’t afraid to lay it all out. Shop Music turns the party back on, turning cynicism into solidarity, and Yesboss sees pits forming of folk unreservedly jumping for joy. The warmth of Shithouse, a song to scream into the void of disaffection with a smile on your face, brightens the final slice of the show, and it feels like the afterparty blending into the present as Hicklin parades through the crowd on Trees, kickstarting a   wholesome whole crowd jump that’s bigger than all of us.

Tonight is the kind of night to restore any lost faith in humanity through warmth and celebration of what makes daily life a miracle. As Big Special only grow in force, it’ll be a delight to see how they sustain themselves as a force for good.

Review of Big Special live at Roundhouse, London on 27th February 2026 by Kate Allvey, photography by Louise Phillips

Foo Fighters Let Loose At O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club @ Troxy, London - 2025.12.17

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club @ Troxy, London - 2025.12.17

The star of the show, 2005’s Howl, crystallises with the same polarising sentiment that characterised its release two decades ago, and from the second that Devil’s Waitin’ drifts, deceptively tender and delivered in near total darkness, it’s clear that this is a show that will split the crowd. Howl’s twanging echoes and muddy roots appeal, softly echoing like gutter gospel glide in Shuffle Your Feet’s rainy night tale and organ calls, and the stark beauty that BRMC unearth enraptures many in the packed theatre. “This is gonna be good,” growls Robert Levon Been, crouching over his guitar for the crashing rock of Ain’t No Easy Way, and he’s right: the atmosphere in the Troxy blooms whenever a hint of the garage rock fuzz we love from BRMC is flung in our direction. When we get a solo on Weight Of The World, or even the piano avalanches that frame Still Suspicion Holds You Tight, we rejoice. What we’re given instead is the spectral harmonies of Restless Sinner, a sacrilegious morality tale backed by chain gang sentiment and minimalist guitar, or lonely trombone twisting Promise into the blues. The band’s glacial explorations ice out some onlookers but they drift onwards, sending out notes like dandelion fluff. It’s a risky grand experiment, a mission outside the boundaries of our preconceptions. For some, the lonely darkness they evoke is a comfort; for others, it’s too far away from the rock satisfaction they seek.

A burst of slinky bass that heralds Red Eyes And Tears, and with just the tiniest twist in tuning, we’re hooked again. Pulsing red, Been’s vocals ease into a fuzzy purity as he embraces his guitar in child pose before a reprise, allowing each thought to disparate into the atmosphere. A stomped bass drum builds into Beat The Devil’s Tattoo: our phones up as the song fills the room, slowed and shivery, a wall of distortion and perhaps even an exorcism of their own demons as the frontman turns waving preacher over the crowd. Berlin is a punchy little burst of guts and gasoline, and when teamed with Conscience Killer we’re reminded that when they stick to the straight and narrow and they’re chucking out the gravel that we loved them for, BRMC can put on an awesome show. Before the pulsing electro from Whatever Happened To My Rock n Roll even really hits, we’re already mid-jump, finally getting a chance to shake ourselves loose from the solemnity, and the window of finally being able to party continues into Spread Your Love. Soul-searching and exploring the darkness at the heart of man might have been their goal, but the great connection comes through the garage jams that we were hoping for.

Tonight we got a show that demands reflection. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club desperately want to return to their folk era, the time when they were metaphorically striding to the crossroads to make a deal with the devil, and they want us to appreciate Howl in all it’s glory (to the extent that Been had a go at us collectively for not buying enough copies between songs). Maybe the world isn’t ready for it yet, or maybe slowing it down and stripping back every song to the bare bones was not the way to get the majority of the crowd to appreciate its majesty. Maybe we’re all too hung up on jumping to their biggest hits, or maybe we’re just in love with their pulse-pounding garage rock angle. For the hardcore this was undoubtedly almost a religious experience, but for those who like their night to be a slamming inditement of the power of speeding rock, tonight left a gap that only more speeding distortion could have filled.

Review of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club at the Troxy, London, on 17th December 2025 by Kate Allvey, photography by Pauline Di Silvestro

Mumford & Sons Return Home Renewed And Reignited At The O2 Arena

Alabama 3 @ O2 Shepherds Bush Empire

Alabama 3 @ O2 Shepherds Bush Empire (Simon Reed)

“We put the big song at the beginning to give you the opportunity to leave the room,” warns vocalist Larry Love, “things are going to get weird…” He’s referring to Woke Up This Morning, Alabama 3’s late nineties hit, which they drop fourth in their set, and of course our phones raise on reflex to capture the track’s blend of nonchalant cool, loose breakdowns and chemical freshness. While we love it, the moments of ‘getting weird’ are what we’re here for, and once they’ve met their obligation to drop the song they’re known for, the bass rises and the pressure releases. Speed Of The Sound Of Loneliness is packed with their trademark heartwarming oddness: a psychedelic post modern hoedown brimming with sincere gospel energy that just works.

Alabama 3 @ O2 Shepherds Bush Empire

Alabama 3 @ O2 Shepherds Bush Empire (Simon Reed)

Their gleeful defiance of the rules of a show extends like sunshine to everything Alabama 3 touch onstage. Losing a vocalist might stop a lesser band in their tracks, but instead D Wayne Love is still very much part of the show, preaching via videos and vocals recorded before his passing. As the band drop to their knees to pray for his blessing during Ain’t Going To Goa in between harmonica breakdowns and bouncing beats, the fantastic artificially of the performance lends itself perfectly to a band with so many layers of lore built up over the years. There’s probably a rule somewhere about mentioning communism that many times onstage, but that’s resoundingly ignored too: Woody Guthrie is cheekily dedicated to Nigel Farage, and Mao Tse Tung Said draws on protest riot energy, complete with melodic touches and firm gospel grip on the house beats.

Alabama 3 @ O2 Shepherds Bush Empire

Alabama 3 @ O2 Shepherds Bush Empire (Simon Reed)

Alabama 3’s energy is firmly matched by the tribe they’ve gathered around them since their inception: the ravers for whom it was never a phase, the genre rebels, and those who just want to dance to music that touches them. Their ‘narcocorrido’, Margarita Time, pitches from latin surreality into a rowdiness among the crowd, and Hello… I’m Johnny Cash results in holiday camp waving and an unusually emotional organ finish. Fan favourite Too Sick To Pray utilises unexpected rock guitar solos to transmute the eerie energy on the recording into a slamming number before U Don’t Dans 2 Tekno gently eases into the after party as an elder raver anthem. Bookending their set with the latest single, Sex Machine Learning, just to remind us what they’re still capable of, sends us bouncing into the night, our ears ringing with a new classic.

Alabama 3 prove there will always be a place in the world for the pleasure of musical innovation, and nothing is going to hold them back as they spin into a another year of melting their passions together to create something gloriously original.

Review of Alabama 3 at O2 Shepherds Bush Empire on 13th December 2025 by Kate Allvey, photography by Simon Reed

Mumford & Sons Return Home Renewed And Reignited At The O2 Arena

Reef @ O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire

Reef @ O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire (Kalpesh Patel)

Tonight means a lot to a crowd who have stuck with Reef since the early days, holding onto Replenish like a polaroid of an easier time, and by the time we’re through the funk elements added to Naked  and the affable soul improv laid onto Good Feeling, we can see exactly why this record has gently gathered its following. Sure, the room has grown in the last  few decades, by Repulsive still enchants with its garage closeness.’The first one that me and Jack wrote together that we ended up recording’, according to vocalist Gary Stringer, Mellow emerges as a beautiful deserted beach at daybreak, the guitar hum reverberating up into the balconies. We can almost feel the journey that the title track has taken from demo to this moment, such is the love poured into each strum. A spooky edge on Amy Newton’s guitar squeezes Choose To Live into bright chorus rivers, meandering through grooves before Loose – “as close as we come to heavy metal music,” laughs Stringer – delivers a mini Led Zeppelin moment, illuminating a path that Reef easily could have travelled. End provides a smart finish for the first half of our show, with classic rock blossoming into duelling guitar and bass solos.

Like a flip of the coin, we’re immediately confronted with the other side of Reef, the rest of the back catalogue that grew from Replenish. Hazy guitars pump up the dance party on I Would Have left You, and the crowd’s loving response leaves Stringer slightly stunned at microcosm of Glastonbury energy that he’s met with. Of course, Place Your Hands sparks a huge clap along, the hit genuinely uplifting, and the maximised bass on Summer’s In Bloom drives shining guitar tweaks that make for a magical live rendition. Come Back Brighter makes for a stomping homecoming finish that frames the show with one last boogie before the big Rock finish of Yer Old, turning up all the elements to make for a dance-off and a last chance to have a jostle, full of shouted energy and a resolute attitude from a band who always tow their own path.

Reef @ O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire

Reef @ O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire (Kalpesh Patel)

Nostalgia shows where a band highlights a seminal album can seem like relying on the past for present day sales sometimes, but not tonight. Reef have presented the raw roots of their sound to give us an insight into the genesis of their journey across time, a moment of seeing them as they were when they first embarked upon recording. It’s equal parts touching and rousing, and proves once again not only did they form an essential brick in the Britpop wall, but also that they’re still one hell of a rock band.

Review of Reef at O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire on 8th November 2025 by Kate Allvey. Photography by Kalpesh Patel.

Home Again: The Temper Trap Triumphantly Return To London’s O2 Forum Kentish Town