Manchester based outfit Hot Milk have been doing the rounds for a good number of years now and have built a very solid fan base with their high profile festival slots and extensive touring. Their blending of genres all under the guise of heavy hitting rock and crunching riffs appears to have universal appeal, as evident with their intimate tour across the UK selling out rather quickly. Hot off the heels of releasing a pair of electrifying new singles from their upcoming second LP, everyone here is tantalisingly poised for what is to come tonight.
The first of these “90 Seconds To Midnight” is a mission statement and sets things out as they mean to continue. Already the crowd are singing along to every word and the screams of “Come friendly bombs” along with those breakdown drops really hit to the core. It’s a bold way of announcing their way back onto the scene and hopefully a taster of what else is to come in the future.
“HORROR SHOW” almost kicks things into yet another gear as Hannah Mee demands the place to open it up in her infectious northern twang. The chants of “Give it a fucking rest” get louder verse by verse as the energy builds and builds. “ZONED OUT” feels like pure pop punk as the several hundred in The Globe bounce in unison. “Swallow This”, released only last week is already one of the best songs they’ve brought out to date. The heavy and ominous riff chuggs along and hits you like a freight train.
Their upcoming sophomore album, “Corporation P.O.P.” is in their words an “uncompromising assessment of the perilous world around us, examined through a sharp British lens that is both witty and universal”. This is clearly shown on the social commentary led track “Insubordinate England” combining a biting look at English culture, whilst also throwing in reference to mushy peas for good measure.
From the new to the old, “Wide Awake” takes everyone back to the beginning again; with the warning that we may never hear this live again and “Where Does The Light Get In?” gives everybody to catch their breath again waving their arms in unison. But it’s during “BREATHING UNDERWATER”, with what Mee calls a meditative moment that sees the biggest singalong of the night. Including what is a very impressive acapella version of the chorus from the crowd during the final key change; I think it’s fair to say that even the band will take their hats off to it.
Throughout the night what’s clear is how tight the band are as a unit. Everything just seems to come together so well and the vocals are incredibly on point despite being drenched in water, sweat or whatever it is up on stage. The relationship between the band and audience feels symbiotic as they feed of each other’s energy over the course of the hour we are treated to. During “Split Personality”, Jim Shaw parts the crowd down the middle like the Red Sea during its trance breakdown.
“PARTY ON MY DEATH BED” sees Mee screaming her lungs out from the top of the amps whilst security just stand there and watch. It’s the last chance to dance for everyone tonight and they don’t let the side down with the large pit maintaining its gyroscopic energy throughout. We’re even treated to the odd crowd-surfer and stage diver to boot as well. But despite leaving the stage triumphantly, the band are begged back on for an encore of the luscious “Glass Spiders”. They leave again stating that we shall see them again at Slam Dunk some time later this month. In the meantime they’ve got an extensive tour in the states in the lead up to their very busy summer festival schedule. They’ve proven tonight that they are to be an instant attraction for anyone attending these shows later on in the year!