LIVE FROM THE PIT: Carpenter Brut and Sierra Veins

Most people choose to spend their Sunday evenings relaxing and preparing for the week ahead. Instead, two-thousand people came down to the Shepherds Bush Empire to dance, mosh and have the time of their lives inside Midwichopolis, the city where CARPENTER BRUT’S Leather Trilogy takes place.

But first, the crowd needed to be warmed up a bit. Enter SIERRA VEINS, who took to the stage armed with nothing more than a MIDI keyboard, pad, and a MIDI controller. But calling her setup minimal would be missing the point entirely. What SIERRA VEINS created was a singular, overpowering universe that blended EBM, synthwave, industrial, and darkwave into something that felt both futuristic and primal.

The stage design was nothing short of spectacular, with cyberpunk aesthetics brought to life through careful lighting and, most memorably, SIERRA VEINS herself wearing a smoke machine like it was part of her performance art. Her distorted vocals, processed through layers of effects, meant that her words and production could shine further as her vocals were anonymised through this process.

What set this performance apart was the live instrumentation woven throughout her set. The audience reception was immediate and electric. She did not need to say anything to earn thunderous cheers; her music spoke volumes, and when she raised her arm to command the pit, the crowd responded instantly.

By the end of her set, screams and little cheers filled the venue. As we waited longer and longer for CARPENTER BRUT to come on, it felt like a rave full of metalheads, and somehow that made perfect sense.

As the Iron Tusk tower towered over the pit, it was evident that CARPENTER BRUT, real name Franck Hueso, was primed to take the stage. And the pit was ready for him.  Flanked by guitarist Adrien Grousset and drummer Florent Marcadet, both from French tech-metal band HACRIDE, Hueso delivered a performance that felt like witnessing the apocalypse through VHS static.

The massive tower-construct behind the stage served as both visual anchor and symbolic monument to the industrial decay that permeates CARPENTER BRUT’s aesthetic, making you feel like you are fighting with Bret Halford. Everything about this performance was designed to complement the music - the fake real estate ad that opened the show, the sprawling dystopian visuals that accompanied each track, the way Hueso communicated through gestures and prerecorded voice lines that had the spirit of the usual MCing on stage.

The setlist was a journey through Hueso's Leather Trilogy, with most songs from the finale of the trilogy, Leather Temple. She Rules the Ruins showcased those hypnotic arpeggio synths that made the track such a standout, while Looking for Tracy Tzu delved deep into worldbuilding with its omnipresent Iron Tusk branding and the chilling dystopian atmosphere it represents.

What made the performance truly special was how everything complemented each other. The visuals used throughout the gig immersed you in the everyday life of Midwichopolis, both the good and the ugly side of the city and the extent of the tyranny that main character Bret Halford is prepared to fight against.  

Perhaps the most endearing moment came when the audience sang "Happy Birthday" to the sound engineer. Despite the dystopia of Midwichopolis, there is still hope in evading this kind of future, and the pit proved that to be true.  

Ending on an electric cover of Maniac by MICHAEL SEMBELLO, the only song on the set with lyrics, CARPENTER BRUT proved that energy and enthusiasm are the key things needed for metalheads to mosh and jam out to music. Anything is moshable, if you put in the work, and CARPENTER BRUT did just that. Despite being the last date on the tour, it felt more like he was just getting started.

Words and photos: Atoosa Salamat