“I apologise if we’re not saying much...we’re just trying to drink it all in.”
From the dust and ashes of a genre formerly crusading the 2000s, the Canadian pop-punk/hardcore punk band Pup conjured something fresh with the recent release of their third LP, Morbid Stuff. Through the trials and tribulations over the past decade of this particular genre, it has been frontman Stefan Babcock’s pertinent and introspective lyricism, as well as the band’s collectively harsh vocal melodies which have stood them apart from this now gentrified car crash of a genre. Perhaps similar to the recent reviewal of Mannequin Pussy from the United States, Pup qualified a genuineness to their music and on-stage personalities which brought them speechless during their first of two sold-out headline shows in London.
Inevitably warming the November chills with their frenetic repertoire of late, Pup’s spurring of distortional cacophonies and sing-along moments proved an exceptionally graceful start. From the album’s title track, to ‘Kids’, and ‘Free at Last’, the band’s upbeat trajectories were underlined with a vein of adolescent truisms, remarked in the former track on accepting a godless existence. With the latter focusing on the constraining effects of his personal depression, Babcock yet again confided in this crowd with key and relevant societal topics which would prove vital in tonight’s showcasing of Pup’s burgeoning musical quest.
Yet this entourage eventually turned the clocks back further to their debut record of 2014, exemplifying the tropes of which modern punk has witnessed through this decade. Maintaining a rough-and-ready style to their fast-paced tempos, ‘Reservoir’ and ‘Back Against The Wall’ typified Babcock’s lyrically-focused writing style encased in a bass-heavy, rough-around-the-edges repertoire of punk which Pup have since built their stoic name upon over the ensuing 5 years.
“You’ve got to realise when it’s all downhill from here so let’s document it tonight.”
Amidst the titanic force of ubiquitous cameramen and women, Pup also decided to include the crowd’s impromptu efforts to sing along to their unanticipated cover of Black Sabbath’s ‘War Pigs’. Whilst we only proved to score a mere 75% of the correct lyrics from the seminal metal track of 1970, full lyrics can be found here - if we work collectively on this, then we can put these wrongs once and for all right again.
And like a football stadium hopelessly devoted to the collective anguish exuded by Pup, the chantings and ‘woah’s commenced the set’s final delve into their sophomore LP, The Dream is Over. Courtesy of the crowd’s incandescent, relentless crowd-surfing during ‘Sleep in the Heat’ and ‘If this Tour Doesn’t Kill You I Will’, to ‘DVP’, Pup ensued a purely reciprocated connection between themselves and the sold-out Camden crowd. Hard to say, but few modern punk bands these days conjure such a genuine bearing upon their audience - all the while retaining a vital string of pertinent societal topics and discussions gripping our current generation.
After duly plugging their reputed charity stall at the back of the venue, imploring the audience to give kindly to their shared charitable cause for struggling immigrants, Pup well and truly rounded off one of the most genuine and humbled nights witnessed in a while. Such a genuine band, grasping a handful of genuine messages, backing a genuine charity, for a genuine cause, has proven extremely hard to find within this ever-evolving and struggling genre - until now. Pup are currently dragging their ancestored genre tooth and nail into the inception of our next decade - who knows where it may take us within the unexpected twists and turns of such musical tropes, yet one thing remains certain: we must savour 'drinking in' Pup's punk prowess for the foreseeable future.
8/10
Pup’s latest LP, Morbid Stuff, is out now and can be found here.
All photos are courtesy of Sophie Dobschall whose work can be found here.
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