While She Sleeps // Talking Heads, Southampton, 2017 – Ermis Madikopoulous
The stage is set. The intro builds up. The Talking Heads feels like it is on the edge of a precipice. Suddenly, Lawrence ‘Loz’ Taylor screams “YOU ARE WE!!”, While She Sleeps roar into life, and all hell breaks loose! The band sound like a raging tiger trapped in a cage coupled with filthy gang vocals and melodies the size of Mount Everest.
Across the next hour, the energy reaches unprecedented heights, especially when Taylor introduces ‘Feel’ with a violent circle pit. When 200 sweaty revellers passionately belt out the chorus: “Let’s feel this together!” it’s a heavenly experience as we bounce in unison. Limbs flying about everywhere, the ceiling tiles cave in, and Taylor walks on the crowds’ hands as he crowdsurfs in this impossibly small venue. An overzealous stagediver cracks his head open during ‘Four Walls’ leaving a crimson pool dotted on the floor. As security drafts him towards an ambulance, the band restarts the song.
The atmosphere is akin to a baying passionate football crowd as the band finish on the chaos-inducing ‘Hurricane.’ When I exit the bloodbath, there’s a plethora of sore heads and bruised arms.