6 hours of travel, an hour of queuing, an hour of waiting, a fair bit of money, a small amount of stress and some wet socks is what it took for me to see Babymetal’s hour long performance at Brixton last night. Was it worth it?… you bet’cha.

The anticipation for this big is pretty ridiculous. What was more ridiculous was that queue. Wrapping all the way round the building, back past the entrance up to brixton street, down a block of brixton street, and that’s only when I got there, it was still growing when I got in the doors. In a rare bout of luck, due to a queuing organisation fail I skipped a huge portion of the queue and got inside and out of rain much quicker than I should have. An hour or so later, and after a well received Through The Fire and the Flames the lights finally dim and people start going crazy. The big screen lights up, telling the story of the ‘Heavy Metal Resistance’ and ‘The Fox God,’ its half amusing and half endearing. Either way it matters little when the Kami band march on and start dropping the opening thundering riff to Babymetal Death. The excitement is palpable and the cheers are deafening when the three ‘chosen’ girls emerge at the top of the platform via a lift. With a small explosion of fireworks the band kick into full gear and the show is all go from then on.

Babymetal confidently smash their way through the majority of songs on their album accompanied by an impressive light show. The girls look like they’re really enjoying themselves as do the band, who get a couple of chances to steal the limelight and demonstrate they’re not just a backing band, they’re exceptionally talented musicians in their own right. And the crowd are definitely having a whale of a time, throwing down to the dubstep in Uki Uki Midnight, waving their arms to the reggae inspired sections in 4 no Uta, there’s even a crazy mosh pit that would put some other bands to shame. All over the venue bodies are bouncing around while trying their damnest to sing along to the Japanese lyrics. It has to be said I’ve never seen a more diverse crowd all watching the same band and all absolutely loving it.

While the whole affair is crazy start to finish, the business end of the main set sees big hitters Megitsune, Doki Doki Morning and youtube sensation Gimme Choko! one after the other which ramps things up to even higher levels of madness. Power metal masterpiece Ijime Dame Zettai closes the main set (with added pyro, everyone loves pyros right?!), preceded by another video asking ‘why do people hurt each other?’ which makes more sense when you know the song is about bullying. Its all rather brilliant. I left after Ijime thinking it was the end and because I had a train to catch. Unfortunately this meant I missed out on them coming back to do Headbanger!! and A BRAND NEW SONG. FUUUUUCCCKKK. Still, it was damn good fun and moreover it wasn’t just a gig, it was an experience. So chances are when they come back, so will I. And I won’t leave early next time.

To conclude, basically if you hate Babymetal, you hate fun. Word.

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Posted in Gigs, Music, Reviews

Tags: BABYMETAL, Brixton Academy