LIVE FROM THE PIT: La Dispute, Vs Self and PIJN

Camden’s Electric Ballroom has been the location for many an amazing show - acts across the entire range of musical sound have played there, with pop and punk and heavy metal and hip hop and more all having been represented within its storied walls. Amongst those genres is post-hardcore, and the Michigan band LA DISPUTE are surely one of the most consistent and well-loved bands within the genre. All the way from their debut full-length in 2006, to the release of what’s become arguably their biggest song Such Small Hands on their 2018 effort, and through to the release of last year’s fantastic No One Was Driving The Car, they’ve been at the forefront of the modern post-hardcore sound - mixing it with screamo, punk, and emo across their discography in myriad ways. With all their history, it only made sense for them to be playing an equally historic venue - and so with two brilliant bands joining them on tour in VS SELF and PIJN, the stage was set for a phenomenal night.

The first of the three acts to play was PIJN, one of the UK’s best underground bands on the circuit. Playing a gorgeous brand of majority instrumental post-rock, the five-piece positively glowed under their warm orange lighting. Playing all four tracks off of their astounding release From Low Beams Of Hope, the music flowed wonderfully across the entranced audience for the entire duration of their beautiful set. On The Far Side Of Morning was particularly gorgeous, and they finished to a tremendous round of applause that was more than deserved.

After the relative tranquillity of PIJN’s set, VS SELF’s style of emo was an injection of energy into the Electric Ballroom dancefloor. With hints of Midwest emo and new-school screamo in their sound, the warm guitar tones and searing vocals were a real treat. With the majority of their setlist coming from their 2020 album Everything Seems Better Now, even their arrival onstage demanded cheers and applause, let alone when they started playing tracks like Mourn or Leave Everything. They were an excellent choice to open for our headliners, bridging the gap from the peaceful openers to the frantic finale with aplomb.

As suggested, LA DISPUTE caused uproar for most of their time onstage. With seven songs of their sixteen song set coming from new album No One Was Driving The Car, it was a showcase of the best of their new material mixed in with a horde of hits from across the past twenty years. There were a number of crowd favourites to be found within this new material, such as I Shaved My Head, which went down a treat, and the star of the new album Autofiction Detail - a piece that follows the story of the album with the focus on a man walking through a city filled with neglect and sadness, hoping for a revelation, but never finding one. The spoken word outro was as emotive a live moment as we’ve ever witnessed, with the whole room eerily silent except for the repeating, rhythmic poem that finishes the song. With the crowd loving every second of the show, the one-two punch finish of Andria into Environmental Catastrophe Film was a breathtaking finish that captured gallons of raw emotion and let it fly in one great release.

Marking a phenomenal new album from the headliners, the tour package showcased three astounding performances that all had something different about them, and yet were all connected by a thread of deep emotion. An affecting and profoundly emotive night, there’s no doubt it will be remembered for a very long time.

Words: Jasmine Longhurst

Photos: Jac Thomas