By Jase Walker
Festival season is here but there’s still time for a few shows to really kick things off before going off to a random field to have a few too many beers and see more bands than I’ll probably remember. As for now, it’s time to see Don Broco blow the roof off Melkweg in their Oude Zaal room along with Slay Squad.
A slightly late interview with Don Broco sees me getting into the room just after Slay Squad gets things going and they’re clearly going down pretty well already. This is a pretty interesting combination of deathcore mixed with Compton-style rap, super aggressive bars and disgustingly heavy riffs and of course, absurd overuse of bass drops.
Circle pits are already going at full speed, the band relentlessly gets stuck into people’s faces, constant movement, these guys don’t care in the slightest that they’re the support act, this is their show. One of the singers at one point seems to be facetiming someone they know, which they then reveal to be their wife: fuck yeah dude.
I think this is what really helps translate a show to a crowd who don’t know you, just have a ton of fun doing it without much worry and it’ll convince people eventually. Slay Squad lay down some tasty grooves as well as their litany of aggressive words which to an audience largely made up of people who likely have no idea who they are, have clearly connected very well. Slay Squad have made a real success story of their set, there’s no other way to put it, a real class act from these.
Don Broco kicks off with ‘Cellophane’ and it’s already causing the hype to go straight for the peak and we’re going to be here for at least the next hour whether people like it or not! It speaks volumes about the fanbase for Don Broco considering the “new shit” gets just as much movement as the “old shit”.
The crowd are absolutely here for one reason and that’s riffs to go fucking insane to. There’s been zero build up with the crowd energy, straight in at 100 per cent and the only way from here is straight up to impossible heights.
‘Night Tripping’ is a fantastic example of this, everyone already knows the words so let’s go! The crowd is fully chomping at the chance to get mad in another put and ‘Come Out To LA’ is the absolute perfect chance, you don’t need a massively heavy break to provoke this, just a solid rhythm and song peak and that’s enough.
I’m genuinely losing track of how far through we are already because I’m way too absorbed in screaming all the words. I’ve spent almost the entire last two months priming myself for all of the words of the most recent albums and it’s definitely paid off. The one-two punch of ‘Manchester Super Reds No. 1 Fan’ followed by ‘One True Prince’ is a great call to break up the mania a bit with a slower paved sing-along.
Inviting Slay Squad on stage to join in with ‘True Believers’ while diving into the crowd’s circle pit and making their tour manager work hard as hell to keep the mic cable in the air to avoid tripping. Ending the main set on ‘Everybody’ was clearly the right medicine for tonight but everyone knows we’ve got the big bangers left; what set would be complete without ‘T-Shirt Song’? Because of course this would be the next song on the encore because after this there is indeed one song left and of course I’m going to oblige by taking my T-shirt off to swing around my head.
And finally bringing the set to the close is ‘Hype Man’ which does an incredible job of closing off what has been a fantastic set that’s shown off the latest songs from ‘Nightmare Tripping‘ while also hitting the biggest bangers of their recent back catalogue.
Getting to witness Don Broco in an intimate setting like this is truly a special experience, as someone that’s seen them play shows that range from this size to arena level, I can say without a doubt that they smash it at both sizes but this sort of show is really special. Absolutely mental, what a privilege.