Live Review: Slaves w/ Spring King at The Forum, London


Isaac Holman with Slaves at the Forum, London. January 2016. (Photo: Alberto Pezzali for Live4ever Media)

Isaac Holman with Slaves at the Forum, London. January 2016. (Photo: Alberto Pezzali for Live4ever Media)




‘Better late than never’ is the most pertinent of idioms one can muster up tonight in between the gloriously headbanging racket of Slaves at the Kentish Town Forum.

The punk duo were due to play here last November but for frontman Isaac Holman dislocating his shoulder in a show the week before. Let loose first though is Spring King, a rag-tag gang of four from Manchester whose two indie-punk EPs have helped amass a buzz about them since then end of 2014.

Equality is evident amongst the band. Main singer, drummer and all-round polite man Tarek Musa is positioned up front with his teammates to form an orderly line on stage, a line giving off anything but orderly sounds. Bass-driven ‘City‘, jittery ‘Mumma‘ and latest single ‘Who Are You?‘ all crash and bounce out with sweltering intensity, despite the venue’s frigid January air.

Often all singing together, the effect is anthemic and the mini swirls of moshpits will surely only swell in size once this fun faction have an album to throw around.

At last, after all these years, The Vengaboys have found a belated raison d’être. ‘We Like To Party!‘, the cheddar of 90’s Europop cheese, is played to a crowd lapping it up as Slaves walk out, half-hidden by a quilt of smoke and blinding strings of wild laser. Guitarist Laurie Vincent is both exhausting and addictive to see, jolting over the floor, posturing and bending legs in half-mast trousers.

A standing Holman, topless after two songs, beats his drum kit to within an inch of its life. Spot jumping from side to side, like punk’s own Mr Motivator, he scowls lyrics that veer from the political bashings of ‘Sugar Coated Bitter Truth‘ (“don’t trust the spies/they’re political spies”) to the environmental concerns of ‘The Hunter‘ (“the water is warm/the ice caps are melting”).

Laurie Vincent with Slaves at the Forum, London. January 2016. (Photo: Alberto Pezzali for Live4ever Media)

Laurie Vincent with Slaves at the Forum, London. January 2016. (Photo: Alberto Pezzali for Live4ever Media)

Holman is at home as much behind the drums as he is going for a meander off-stage, chattering away, even stretching out on the speakers for the acoustic ‘Are You Satisfied?‘, a disparately quiet strum that shows they have more to their stripes than just screams and rattles.

Their music might suffer in variation from a limited palette of instruments, and is in parts unashamedly derivative (wow! ‘AM’ is an ersatz ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’), but the twosome chop up a visceral experience of headlong riffs and nonstop bangings, enough to frighten the ears off a noggin.

It’s not all threatening though. Vincent drops a joke about Sean Connery and tennis. A benevolent Holman tells the animated crowd to help each other out if they fall down in the helter skelter of surfing bodies that songs like ‘Where’s Your Car Debbie‘ cause. Someone throws a glove on stage and he asks if they want it back. An inkblot of nihilism in their look doesn’t mean they don’t care, especially after they have spoken out recently in support of anti-harassment of females at their gigs.



They hug each other crossing paths at one point and always refer to each other as friends. Love and camaraderie is a tight belt around these irreverent Kent boys. However, the biggest love of the night is left for David Bowie, who had died earlier in the week.

Heroes‘ blares out as they finish up, and ‘just for one day’ hums through the departing fans.

(Steven White)


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