LIVE FROM THE PIT: Hyphen, Gen And The Degenerates, Mudrat and Native James
- Julia Brunton
- 4 days ago
- 6 min read
HYPHEN’s rebel scum tour was the perfect start to the May bank holiday in Newcastle; a curated lineup of the best of contemporary punk and high energy sets making it a ninth birthday to remember for one attendee of Digital.
Out of Rage favourite NATIVE JAMES began his set promptly at half seven, opening with lead Confessions of a Sinner single Fallen and quickly getting the crowd moving. The pit opened up for its follow up Hammer and the two steppers would keep their knees high as this turned into Power - only a small break taken for the Queen of the Dammed introduction. At this midpoint the electricity was coursing with Digital, which is what NATIVE JAMES does best, and the heads started banging like a metal Mexican wave. With another line from Queen of the Dammed sample The Rumbling started, now with the addition of bassist — screaming the second line of the hook which added extra flow to its live rendition. By this point the pit was breathing on its own and taking up half of the iconic attic room.
After The Rumbling, NATIVE JAMES took the time to thank Digital for coming down early, and with the excited “see you at Download!” calls came the reveal of his intention to have PROFESSOR GREEN in Donnington Park - lucky are those who’ll see Block fully actualised. To finish was Field, an easy crowd pleaser, then unreleased track Never Been Scared which is getting its field test on this run. In short it goes hard - swinging, low pitched electro nu-metal that we can hope comes out sooner rather than later. As mentioned NATIVE JAMES is an Out of Rage favourite who always brings the most every stage he hits; make sure to catch him at Download before there’s no room in his crowds.
After half an hour Aussie punk MUDRAT set up for the second ever show outside of their home country, making their presence known with You Don’t Care about Poor People. It was easy for digital to join in the call as MUDRAT swapped from a heavy set walk around the stage and a girlypop flick of the wrist for the cleaner vocal elements. Speaking of easy calls, it took little convincing to get Digital to chant One War Class War as Mudrat mused on being from a working class cities then coming to the UK and exploring Leeds and Newcastle respectively, keeping the crowd chanting “tell them they can get fucked” for the chorus of I Hate Rich Cunts. For We Despise the Bourgeoisie HYPHEN himself snuck out to rap his bridge in a first for the two acts, invigorising the band and crowd alike as the room jumped around with them. This stunt was a present for a 9 year old boy in the crowd for whose this was their favourite song; feelings on the amount of fucks a child that age should hear were pushed to the side for this child to come on stage and have Digital sing him happy birthday with HYPHEN and MUDRAT either side of him.
In a tonal whiplash the next beat of the set was MUDRAT’s drummer performing the gutwrenching interlude of Mud, revealing a beautiful singing voice behind their nervous face as MUDRAT drew parallels between the factories in Melbourne and in Newcastle both making parts for the genocidal machine attacking Gaza. The music swelled as MUDRAT called for disruption before MUDRAT played Mud in full, then finished the set with Year of the Rat. This was cheeky and high energy, taking a pit that had been getting bigger and bigger to its most swollen then welcoming him into the centre as MUDRAT lay down and delivered the second verse. MUDRAT were introspective and community driven in their discussion of their politics and able to keep the crowd hyped throughout their musical numbers, while the detour taken to give a young boy a birthday he’ll always remember reminded that through the horrors we can make sure the kids are alright.
The final band sent to warm up Digital were Riot Grrrl upstarts GEN AND THE DEGENERATES, with vocalist Gen introducing themselves by name and the band as the degenerates as guitarist Sean Healand-Sloan and drummer Evan Reeves pointed to one another and shrugged “surely not” behind them. Famous opened a set where the fem-presenters in the crowd were getting their time to shake hips, pit giving way for a dancefloor carried by the GEN AND THE DEGENERATES fan in leather trousers screaming every word and dancing as if they had the room to themselves.
Follow up Favourite Jumper, Jen explains, is about “sleeping with a lot of people” with a coy smile, when a funky dragged-out chord progression starts playing and they delight about being a bisexual stereotype while looking at Digital through their eyelashes until Favourite Jumper’s breakdown. Here Jen lets loose at the expense of one of their space buns, which they admit defeat on and let down completely as they explain the mental health struggles behind Wahoo. The track itself is catchy and Digital catches onto the ‘wahoo’ quickly while Gen takes their turn performing from the floor; this plus the headbanging makes their left earpiece the next sacrifice, but once fixed it’s time for set closer Girlgotgun. The pit comes back for this and Gen is back doing floorwork, then closing their time on stage with a hard breakdown and a thank you. GEN AND THE DEGENERATES are equal parts honest and cheeky - the charisma of their frontman floods at their feet and they know how to get hips moving.
The final half an hour break is spent with the Digital crowd filing onto the Millenium Square balcony, taking in the last of an unusually hot day before “backstreet’s back” lets them know the main event is starting. Out comes HYPHEN in his signature micro shorts, this time paired with a salmon waistcoat adorned with blue birds and flowers. The set opener is This Might be it, and HYPHEN can barely last half a verse before jumping from digital’s stage to dance his way through the crowd. With no break this is followed by This is Great Britain, by which point the room is jumping and ready for a guaranteed punk workout. HYPHEN decides this is the point to go through his mission statement about the suicide in his early 20s and how grateful he his ten years later for his now wife, his music and his growing fanbase; Confidence was the natural pick to follow this statement where his shorts can shake his troubles away as he picked fans in the crowd to sing every line with.
Next speech was musing on how easily Britons born and moved get on when there are no politicians forcing them to hate one another, paving the way for the return of MUDRAT to have their first try performing Gary’s Economics live. With HYPHEN's signature “I’m about to start my WWE fight” limber the track kicked and the pit opened, getting right back to the punk workout as MUDRAT darted away for HYPHEN to take Hate Thy Neighbor and The Bear on his own. To follow was Hate Yachts not Dinghys, where Digital took two minutes to scream that hook loud enough to fill the square in a moment that reminded how unpopular anti-immigration sentiment actually is even in the corners of the UK it is often associated with.
The final part of Hyphen’s set started with Hydra, followed by I said what I said which fostered the biggest pit of the night. HYPHEN’s final talking section was admitting feeling a little needy with the wants for call and response, then the classic “aren’t I clever” as he explains the line in Deskjob. Digital got it eventually, even managing to switch it from a call and response to a quiet to loud as the whole room crouched then jumped to its final chorus.
Penultimately was 3 Pound Pints which electrified Digital for the home stretch, and the first of the moshers jumped to the stage; quickly most of the concert-goers were crowded around the band jumping and two stepping to the final chorus, leading HYPHEN to first tumble over a speaker then get back up, look around and decide that the set closer could be performed exactly like this. As expected this was Marching Powder, which was shouted behind him for the first half before his own urge to move got the better of him, taking his time to weave around the Digital crowd that couldn’t fit then shimmying back up for the final chorus.
With an offer to go and talk to him after the show as the chatty man he is, Newcastle’s bank holiday warmup was whistling like a kettle on a stove, and those who weren’t waiting for a quick hello or photo were filing out of the hot attic room into the warm Newcastle air for some reprieve. HYPHEN is always a party, yet once again he has managed to create a night of live music packed with even more infectious energy than the last, and as he mentioned it was worth taking the time to craft his supporting artists for a poster that feels as if it will be in one of those “I wish I could’ve been there” compilations. The community that HYPHEN has built is an unparalleled space of support, solidarity and punk party animals - the sky is too low for the limit.
Words: Julia Brunton
Photos: Klaudia Skalska
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