By Jase Walker
Every now and then, there’s a band that you check out based on a recommendation from a friend and they absolutely blow your head off. Not only does STARSET have a very unique sound but their story heavy songs that lie right in the middle of fantastical high sci-fi – and they’ve got a live performance aesthetic to match it.
Today marks the first ÜK show of a repeatedly delayed tour due to logistics difficulties still remaining from 2020/2021 so I’ve got very little to go on with if they’ve switched up their live show outfits again. Most recently this was a desert planet style rags and goggles and prior to that, quite literally space suits with mics built into the helmets, it was quite the experience to say the least. For this run of shows they’ve brought along Smash Into Pieces who I’ve never heard of before but keen to see as STARSET picks some incredible supports for their shows.
It seems Smash Into Pieces have had their crowd diminished a bit as it appears that the meet and greet overran a bit so it’s taken a bit longer for people to filter into the venue. I absolutely adore their drummer’s outfit that’s sort of a mix of Sith lord with a bright red LED mask that reminds me a lot of Boba Fett. They’ve got a fairly similar sound to STARSET but seem to mix some pretty cool synthwave elements into it here and there so yeah I’m pretty into this already! They sound absolutely bloody fantastic too, drums are nice and clear, the bass is strong but not overwhelming and the guitar is also crisp and fits together nicely so the vocals can do their thing.
Even just at the halfway point I’m already digging through Spotify to get them added to my library (a quick cursory look and that’s a lot of albums) as I’ll most definitely be rinsing their back catalogue in the morning! Their stage performance is a real class act as well, lots of crowd interaction and playing it up to them, oozing confidence and style. I’ve actually only just clocked onto them using an electronic drum kit and there isn’t actually a live bass player which I suppose speaks volumes about how distractingly good their stage performance is. I can definitely say Smash Into Pieces has left an impression on me and I’ll probably have to spend a whole getting used to that bloody massive discography of theirs, top notch set.
Whatever they’re doing on the stage changeover, they’re doing it bloody fast. After Smash Into Pieces has their kit swiftly removed from the stage, a large curtain is propped up in front of the stage as a bit of theatrical mystery!
Opening with their trademark introduction video, flashing their almost militarized star logo on stage and yes it looks like they’ve changed their live aesthetic again! The three dots on the temple from their music videos are clearly lit up and visible and their “desert planet” cowls appear a bit more tidied up now as well. Opening with ‘Carnivore’ and ‘Infected’, the large screen behind them has accompanying videos for each song; as I’ve mentioned with the likes of Gojira and Nordic Giants, I absolutely adore it when bands do this! ‘Echo’ gets the crowd really into the swing of singing along, but as much as ‘Divisions’ is my favourite album by them now, I’m really hoping for some of the massive songs from ‘Vessels’ as well.
A small instrumental leading into ‘Trials’ while a number of flags are propped up on stage and various members waving them around at different points in the song, nevermind this being one of my favourite songs of theirs! They’re actually going pretty hard on the ‘Divisions’ songs as well, as they follow up with ‘Manifest’; again everyone here knows the words and you can hear the chorus of it all the way through the song! Bizarre videos that almost satirize futuristic technology such as a brain interface with essentially lounge jazz backing music.
Admittedly this breaks actually been quite lengthy which has been a bit of a jarring stop in terms of the shows momentum but I suspected this was a lead into a second act for tonight’s show and they’ve donned the space suits again and it looks it’s time to lean into the older songs from ‘Vessels’, starting with ‘Satellite’ with ‘Ricochet’ following up right after? Excellent! It’s not all old songs for Act II though as we return to ‘Horizons’ for their lead single, ‘The Breach’ and it’s got quite a different spin on it with live cello and violin, incredible. ‘DIE FOR YOU’, another massive song off ‘Vessels’ sees the crowd waving their arms around under the direction of their singer and screaming the words to the chorus out with another apocalyptic video playing behind the band.
Looks like we’re in the homestretch of the show now and STARSET has zero problems getting the crowd to join in on the chant for ‘Devolution’. Generally signalling the end of a STARSET set, and most likely shows there’s no encore here as they kick into ‘My Demons’, this wraps up an incredible show from STARSET and they assure us it won’t be long before they’re back and hopefully in a bigger venue to boot (Manchester date at Albert Hall or Academy 1 please). God I love this band, and this show has done everything to make sure it’s only growing!
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