By Jase Walker
I’m honestly still not quite over my London trip this past weekend and I’m already back on my bullshit with today marking the first of three shows this week, Saint Agnes in the lovely picturesque city of Haarlem. Not that I’m seeing much of it considering I’ve got off the train and essentially beelined directly for the venue… well, it’s still too bloody cold to enjoy a nice stroll right now anyway.
So oddly in contrast to the ÜK shows they’ve done prior to this show, there’s no support acts tonight so this’ll no doubt be an equally short and sweet write-up for this industrial-electro-punk-mashup group. Since catching them at 2000 Trees a while back I’ve been keen on seeing them again and this tour is a pretty ideal opportunity given the intimacy of Patronaat’s pretty swish third stage area.
A repeating motto of “bloodsuckers must die” leading into “bloodsuckers forever” before a heartbeat sound and what appears to be flies speeds up building tension as Saint Agnes ready to step up to the stage. The crowd’s already hyped up and ready to get crazy and the start of this set is off to the right start.
They sound fucking massive: string drums, rumbling bass and face melting riffs straight from the outset, this is how you do it. This is already exactly what I wanted out of an intimate show like this, the raw experience of a band belting stuff out barely two metres away from where you’re stood is an experience taken for granted by many.
Saint Agnes does the genre mashup style incredibly well, the sort of stuff that’d pull in people who like riffy punk but also lean into Prodigy inspired electronic music. But it’s not all just about how it sounds when it comes to live experiences, the visual element is every bit as important and the amount of movement by the band is a real treat to see. Seeing a band very obviously enjoying what they’re doing makes the overall show come across that much better, you feel encouraged to give back the energy to the band sevenfold more. Their lead singer and guitarist spotting one particularly enthusiastic audience member down the front and takes the opportunity to jump down to headbang with her while smashing a few riffs out.
Admittedly saying these are punk sort of undersells the variety a bit, while there’s definite overarching elements of electro and industrial in there some of the heavier songs stray full into metal territory of the likes of Fear Factory and the heavier elements of NIN. Especially when those strobes kick in to accentuate the thunderous moments mid-set it really drives home that Saint Agnes are far from a one trick pony that their detractors often attempt to make out. For every light hearted punk song they’ve got, they’ve got an equally insanely heavy pounding metal song up their sleeves to give you whiplash with switching gears in this set.
Their singer remarks prior to “This is not the end”, that they’re touring an album that was written during an extremely tough time as they lost their mother, the loss of a parent is no easy thing to deal with but using this song to honour her memory is quite sweet. Finishing up an admittedly shorter set than I would have imagined for a headliner, let alone a solo headliner spot, it’s still been a fantastic show and worth the trip over to Haarlem to catch them. They’ve seen a solid turnout and I hope it’s not too long before I see them again.
Bloodsuckers forever!
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