Shvpes started off their headline UK tour with an intimate night in the top floor room of Nottingham’s iconic Rescue Rooms venue. The venue is almost a pinnacle for bands starting out who make their way through Nottingham, having helped pave the way for bands like Bring Me The Horizon and While She Sleeps to eventually take on the Rock City main stage. Supporting Shvpes on this tour were Nottingham locals The Five Hundred and Liverpool based nu-metal band Death Blooms.
Death Blooms being the first band up immediately gave me a sense of nu-metal nostalgia that myself and the crowd were very into. Given that it’s a genre i haven’t been familiar with in a number of years I was surprised to see a band still putting out nu-metal style music and doing it well. Their mix of nu-metal influences and heavy metal sound was exactly what this crowd needed to start the show off right, and by the end of their set the room was like a sauna and the crowd were sweating and eager for the second act. Death Blooms have put out two singles already this year, Believe and Crosses and i’d highly recommend checking them out.
Shvpes took to the stage going straight into Undertones, the first single from their latest album Greater Than which was released late last year. This tour gave them their first opportunity to play some of the new songs from this album live for the first time which was exciting for the audience and i’m sure for the band themselves! You could tell from the level of energy coming from the band that they’d been waiting for this tour to start ever since the album dropped. The band members were far exceeding the limitations of the small stage raised barely 1ft from the ground. Griffin was immediately interacting with the crowd, jumping into the audience, jumping around the sound equipment, he was really giving the first night of tour everything he had. The crowd were likewise doing the same and not holding back one bit with moshing and dancing and singing.
Obviously this tour was primarily to promote their new album which they did exceptionally well. But i can’t help but think about the lack of older songs on the setlist. I can understand some bands don’t like to dwell on their past music when there’s new music that they’re quite proud of that they want to play for everyone. But throwing in a good mix of the songs that got you where you are always seems like a solid way of making sure everyone has a good time and everyone can engage with the whole set. But overall I had an incredible time seeing these guys for my first time and i’ll no doubt be catching them again when they play some more UK dates over the summer.
Shvpes upcoming UK dates are:
Supporting Bullet For My Valentine @ Glasgow’s Barrowland, 24/05/19.
Slam Dunk North, Leeds. 25/05/19.
Slam Dunk South, Hatfield. 26/05/19.