By Jase Walker
How on earth is it October already? I genuinely felt one moment I was about to do my first summer festival and now I’m looking at the last run of shows to see 2026 out! Anyway, enough of my whining about my own mortal existence, it’s time to press start on tonight’s show with Samurai Pizza Cats!
They are supported by a band I never thought I’d ever see live and yet this is now the second time this year I’ll be seeing them: Babybeard – the latest project from Ladybeard, a rather large Australian gentleman who left wrestling to pursue a career in Japanese showbiz and ended up pulling it off and starting a slew of musical projects and his latest one is finally making appearances further afield. No doubt they’ll be making an appearance during the main set thanks to their collaboration on ‘Ramen Man’. For tonight’s support there’s also Böse Fuchs who are a total unknown for me but having seen them milling about in the foyer with a rather interesting set of outfits, it’ll fit the bill for being a bit unusual no doubt.
Böse Fuchs get started and admittedly there’s less of them than I was expecting on stage with the main two of the band both sporting guitars and doing vocals while the drummer is tucked away to the side. At times they remind me a bit of Lake Malice, sort of riffy music with a lot of synth use that doesn’t quite fully fit into the metalcore umbrella but floats around in the same niche to an extent.
Mixed vocal styles from both singers and makes for a pretty fun dynamic of call/response and harmony layering. They’re putting in a ton of effort to get the crowd on side and a reasonable response to them sees a bit of movement but overall the audience response seems to be a bit cold unfortunately.
Overall, a pretty solid performance from Böse Fuchs. You gotta give em credit for going all in with trying to get the crowd going despite the pretty frosty response. Not really my cuppa personally but if this is how they roll as opener then I don’t doubt for a second they’ll pick up a solid following. Doing this as a married couple and calling it couplecore is kinda adorable though.
Babybeard kicks off their set with an obnoxiously loud intro track and American wrestling style voiced intro. Admittedly the sound feels a little bit out of whack with Ladybeard’s voice boomingly loud over literally everything else but nevermind, too distracted by the choreography and maid outfits. If you’re somewhat familiar with kawaii metal as a concept via the likes of Baby Metal then you probably won’t be too unfamiliar with their sound – although with the addition of a large man doing aggressive growls.
No sooner do I write that line, they jump into their cover of Baby Metal’s ‘Pa Pa Ya!’, along with the choreographed dance. What I’m also quite amused by is there’s a fair chunk of parents with kids here presumably for Babybeard too considering they all seem to be dancing away. While I may not be totally made up by the overall sound, I can’t complain too much about a silly fun show that clearly isn’t taking itself too seriously.
They’re clearly pleased by the big turnout of other people in maid outfits, fully dressed for the occasion. Happy to also report that ‘Nippon Manju’ is in the set, I’d urge you to check out the YouTube video for it because it’s quite literally a tourism video for Japan. Given that it’s a short support slot it’s not unexpected that the wrestling show I saw last time isn’t part of the show but it’s been great seeing them again. Pretty ridiculous in the best way and I’m a real sucker for this sort of unserious stuff and I’ll definitely be first in line to see them again if they’re back. Very kawaii, very sugoi.
A panda walks on stage, looks around and mashes a large button, presumably to ‘press start’. The melody for ‘Pizza Homicide’ begins immediately after, a bit more extended and through the lens of synthwave which I’m very much appreciating.
The band walks on to the single most intense pink lighting I’ve ever seen at a show, the screens at the back across the whole stage light up and it’s clear that Samurai Pizza Cats aren’t sparing any expense for their show! The crowd is clearly properly warmed up by now as the pit opens up and immediately fills up with frantic runners smashing into each other.
I’m genuinely mad impressed by their sound and visuals, ordinarily I’d expect this sort of production at far bigger shows. ‘Penguin Supreme’ goes down a storm and fans the flames of an already pretty active crowd and is probably the first time I’ve heard a penguin call as a sound effect at a show. They get the entire venue to split down the middle all the way to the sound desk and enthusiastically throw themselves into each other once the drop hits, party is in full send now!
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Samurai Pizza Cats show without several references to… well, pizza. ‘Fear No Slice’ sees several pizza projections spin around on the screen behind them and the continuation of the ferocity in the pit.
A show like this is such a good disconnection from often very emotionally charged music and just lets you get stuck into big riffs, brain switch off, sing about dinosaurs: all that good stuff. Or in this case, Babybeard coming up on stage to join Samurai Pizza Cats for ‘Ramen Man!’, one lad crowd surfs up to the stage and gets pulled up and a quick hug off Ladybeard before awkwardly finding his way back off stage.
As we edge towards the final segment of the show, I really do have to emphasize how much I’ve enjoyed this show. There’s a bit of a pervasive thought that bands playing music that errs a bit on the silly side can’t be considered worth their success and I vehemently disagree with that. Music with a sense of humour and massive riffs to back it up is every bit as valid and Samurai Pizza Cats absolutely prove that.
The final run of songs goes through their most dancey and, erm, explosive songs. ‘Pandastruck’, ‘T-Rex(splosion)’ and then finally ‘Pizza Homicide’ brings the show full circle and wraps up a brilliant show for their first ever Dutch headline show and I’m super privileged to have been here for it. Bit of a shame that the openers had a bit of a frosty start but the end result was a show that really hit the mark for the headliners. Their singer is a brave soul jumping onto a gigantic inflatable pizza slice and crowdsurfing with it.
A genuinely fantastic show.
- The tour continues through Germany and Austria until 17 October and then hits the ÜK in March:
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