Otherkin bring genuine joy and mayhem
Otherkin; Bad Advice UK Tour, Camden Lock Tavern
Words : Rohan Murray-Carrington
Photography : Jeff Moh
A night of sobriety and calm turned into absolute pandemonium with Otherkin truly delivering a no-fucks-given performance. We entered the Lock Tavern, then ascended up the cramped staircase to an almost equally as cramped venue. The room was very darkly lit, offset with dark orange, red and purple lighting. I can only recall two or three white light cutting through to the miniscule stage and even those were pretty small. In all, it gave a very intimate effect on the venue and you couldn't help but feel like you were being sucked in towards the stage.
Admittedly, this was my first time ever seeing or hearing Otherkin, even though my friends have been begging for me to listen to them. I remember as soon as the first chord of the first song hit, I thought "FUCKING YES!"
At the time I didn’t even know what I was listening to, but was singing along to 'I Was Born' like I had been listening to it for years. This was accomplished by a truly balls to the wall wailing performance by the vocalist and guitarist Luke Reilly, whose performance only got more exaggerated as the night continued.
Not that the other band members just sat back. Oh no this was a band that truly loved to perform as Guitarist Conor Andrew Wynne made frequent trips into the crowd and although Bassist David Anthony planted on the ground (relative to the others anyway but he was by no means standing still) he let his performance ring out through the bassier songs such as 'AY AY' which was the stand out song.
The only let down was the crowd. Maybe they were all too aware that it was a week night, and that they had work in the morning - or it is just the curse of London gigs - they never seemed to be having as much fun as the band (or me for that matter). Regardless, between the non-stop onslaught of jumping on the drum set, swinging guitars, falling off-stage and running into the middle of the crowd for a sing along whist knocking down mic stands and equipment along the way, Otherkin brought a genuine form of joy and mayhem rarely seen in post-Brexit London these days.
