LIVE FROM THE PIT: Brat, Skrapper, Jawless and Eskröta

Brat, the femme fronted explosion of energy hailing from the US, has graced its British fans with a small, but intense show at the New Cross Inn in London. Coming straight from their big tour with GWAR, the band has racked up more fans from the metal scene and is ready to continue with their world takeover.

Supported by Skrapper, Jawless and Eskröta, the band’s performance is a part of Real Life Summer Jams, a week full of heavy riffs that is currently taking place at the New Cross Inn.

First on the stage was the Redhill hardcore punk Skrapper. The band did everything they could to hype the crowd of the almost empty venue, and was not getting many interactions, but everything changed when few brave soldiers formed their three-person moshpit, that was carrying throughout the whole set. As a result, the fans were rewarded with screamy vocals, sick riffs and singer in the pit. At one point in the set, the singer and bassist switched places and sang a very heavy song about abuse, that was met with big applause from the audience and more intense moshpit. The two guitarists of the band threw in few greatly executed solos and before the crowd could get more involved, the chaotic, but very short set was unfortunately over.

The next support, Jawless, is hailing from the depths of London, but is composed of people from several different backgrounds. Femme fronted and often singing about political topics, the band’s front-person, Theresa, was not afraid to dive deep into controversy and to make the crowd emotional. The band had a strong two-step moshpit throughout their whole set, that was often joined by the band’s singer, and surely hyped the crowd up immaculately, as the fans enjoyed the set to the fullest. At one point during the concert, the band sang “Happy Birthday” to their guitarist together with the crowd, and surprised the audience, when Theresa’s husband brought a birthday cake into the circle pit. Ending the concert with a fake encore, after asking the promoter how much time they have left, Jawless brought a unique energy to the venue that was like a fresh breeze of punk genius.

After two support bands, the third and last one, Eskröta, that came to London to play all the way from Brazil, has swiftly took over the stage with its aggressive songs about horror movies. Being fronted by femme performers Tamy Leopoldo on bass and Ya Exodus on guitar, and with Jhon Francą on the drums, they served a big portion of real trash metal with a pinch of latina music to the audience, who went berserk from the first song to the last. Ya’s intense screams added something unnatural yet exciting to the performance, while Tamy’s vocals always filled in at the right moments. Featuring the singer from Brat, Liz Selfish, on their song “Misery”, the fans got a quick taste of what was coming right after Eskröta’s performance. Although their English was not perfect, the band expressed their deepest gratitude multiple times and it was obvious they did not take this big opportunity for granted.

After three spectacular support bands, it was finally time for Brat to take over the New Cross Inn and they did it in the most girly-pop-meets-metal style, as every Brat gig should be (and, frankly, is). Serving face, dance and screams, the band’s vocalist Liz and her loyal headset microphone, together with her bandmates guitarist Brenner, bassist Ian and drummer Dustin, made the venue go bonkers with massive moshpi and stage divers. Majority of the songs had an introduction with famous pop-songs, which just added a new and funny twist to this already based concert, together with the head-banging cover of Heart’s “Barracuda”, a classic and iconic hit that every single person in the room knew words to. Finishing the set full of insane riffs and amazing drum work with an encore song, the band once again showed London a good Louisiana grindcore, cementing their spot on the scene as one of the best bands of the time.

New Cross Inn’s The Real Life Summer Jams could not start better than this, with the supports Skrapper, Jawless and Eskröta being a divine selection of bands, and Brat being an iconic girly metal sensation. Every single person in the venue has enjoyed the evening to the fullest and it absolutely was a pleasure to attend.

Words: Katerina Stepanikova

Photos: Amy Smyth