Cage The Elephant certainly don’t skimp on the visuals. They have flames, confetti, lasers, and an array of lights powerful enough to warm up O2 Academy, Brixton on a cold February night. But all they really need is Matt Shultz.
The singer may have calmed down a little since the band played O2 Forum Kentish Town back in early 2016. He no longer spends half the gig crowd surfing or in the photo pit. Diving into the audience from the fire escape stairs has also been relegated to the past.
Yet the hyperactive Shultz remains one of the most watchable performers out there. Rarely standing still, even while singing, he leaps, prances, bounds, and hotsteps from one side of the stage to the other as if the floor’s lava. When he does slow down, it’s to move towards the audience and sing at them with intent or to get on his knees and push his voice further still. Even his time at the mic stand is punctuated with launching himself off it and into the air.
But Shultz’s oversized personality — which extends to between-song banter about the band’s rough early days in London and drinking Strongbow and gin on the tube — never overpowers the songs. Performed with enthusiasm and obvious joy tonight, they represent all six of the band’s studio albums and show how the Kentucky six-piece have always balanced volume and raw power with big choruses and hugely singable melodies. And they’ve never been afraid to try on different styles.
So newer songs like strutting set opener Broken Boy, arm-swaying Rainbow, and hip-hoppy Good Time, have no trouble sidling up to the older stuff. And they sound just as good. Exhibit A: 2019’s paranoid House Of Glass is the perfect lead-in to an absolutely ferocious Sabertooth Tiger, which feels even more carnal than it does on 2011’s Thank You Happy Birthday. It closes the main set with the kneeling singer shouting “Run away” as the music descends into feedback.
Absolutely brilliant, just like the jittery Spiderhead and pretty Telescope, which brings out the mobile phone lights and a chorus of audience voices that almost drowns out Shultz.
Just as impressive is the run of songs that kicks off about an hour into the set with melodic thrasher Halo. Mess Around, with its “oh no” refrain, is faster, chunkier, and even bigger with the crowd. An incredibly beautiful Trouble starts out slow and restrained, gradually growing into a massive audience chorus of “Trouble on my left, trouble on my right/ I been facing trouble almost all my life”. And blues stomp Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked, with a furious solo from lead guitarist Nick Bockrath, gets the room bouncing.
But it’s all just been building up to the encore: four songs, each greeted with even more cheering and singing. Back Against The Wall is scuzzy good time country rock that demands to be danced to. The fast-slow Shake Me Down is all about shouting along with Shultz during the quiet bits and throwing shapes during the loud parts (with the singer’s hip shaking leading the way).
The sunny Cigarette Daydreams, based around rhythm guitarist Brad Shultz‘s acoustic strumming, is an open invitation for the night’s biggest audience singalong; Brixton delivers throughout, but especially when the band drop out to let the crowd take over. And Come A Little Closer, with its rousing chorus and lines like “Time flies by, they all sang along” is an uplifting, unifying end to a night that began hours earlier with Girl Tones.
Sisters from Bowling Green, Cage The Elephant‘s hometown, Laila (drums) and Kenzie Crowe (voice and guitar) uphold the tradition of The White Stripes: two people can play with as much attitude and volume as four. They add punky aggression and spiky songs to the mix, making for a punchy set bookended by their first two singles, both produced by Brad Shultz. Again and Fade Away both pair beefy riffs, no-nonsense drumming, and take-no-prisoners vocals with subtle shifts in tempo and intensity. Raw but real.
With their in-your-face sound and a set almost as eclectic as the headliners, Sunflower Bean are the perfect bridge between the openers and Cage The Elephant. The trio from New York City, fronted by the bass-wielding singer Julia Cumming, swerve from moments like the gritty Lucky Number to the psychedelic Shake by way of perfectly poised ballads like Who Put You Up To This?.
No matter the song’s style, each features a bristling guitar solo courtesy of Nick Kivlen, an approach that extends to the new tracks from forthcoming album, Mortal Primetime. Lead single Champagne Taste is especially potent and a real promise of the celebration yet to come tonight.
Live review of Cage The Elephant at O2 Academy, Brixton, London on 17th February 2025 by Nils van der Linden. Photos by Abigail Shii.
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