Wargasm’s adrenaline-filled set rocks The Pioneer Club: review

While Wargasm are undoubtedly one of the biggest acts in the UK’s metal and alternative scene right now and are destined to play huge venues, their sound is nonetheless tailor-made for grassroots venues, such as the Pioneer Club in St Albans. Wargasm and support acts Crashface and South Arcade, absolutely thrive off the sweaty chaos and pandemonium that ensues when huge, distorted sounds bounce off the walls of a smaller venue, while bodies bounce off each other in tandem. On a wet and autumnal Sunday evening, did Wargasm bring the musical disorder the packed crowd were expecting?

Wargasm are clearly not worried about using polite names for anything, so fittingly this UK tour of small and intimate venues is called ‘Club Shit’. The duo, due to be joined by their full backing band, are Irish photographer and model Milkie Way, who has become the stage-conquering vocalist/bassist we know her as today, and Sam Matlock, co-vocalist and guitarist, part of a rock lineage himself as the son of Glen Matlock of the original Sex Pistols lineup.

Wargasm are a melting pot of The Prodigy style electronica, nu-metal rap, and drawing from almost every conceivable part of the heavier rock spectrum. They’ve won numerous Kerrang! and Heavy Music Awards accolades and 2023 brought in their debut album Venom, with features from such metal royalty as Slipknot’s Corey Taylor and Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst.

It’s something of a full-circle moment to have them at The Pioneer in collaboration with Headliner Spaces, made famous by the likes of The Zombies in the ‘60s, and more recently, the venue where St Albans’ own Enter Shikari cut their teeth before becoming Reading and Download Festival regulars. Wargasm and Shikari teamed up in 2022 for the single release The Void Stares Back. With all that said, the leafy and demure city of St Albans doesn’t know what it’s about to be hit by.

First up, though, is Crashface. Opening acts often have to play to the first few people wandering into the venue, but the room is already packed out with Wargasm not due on stage for two hours. A band formed around the duo of vocalist Charlie Hinton and bassist/producer Otto Balfour-Oatts, Crashface deliver a hard-hitting set of metal, punk, and pop elements, and have been steadily building on their Download Festival debut last Summer.

It’s no easy feat to be the first band on and to successfully open up a mosh pit that takes up a big portion of the room. Some of their biggest tracks such as Surrender Lessons get bodies moving and suitably warmed up.

While there was a sense Crashface were introducing themselves to the Pioneer, sophomore act South Arcade seem to have brought their own contingent with them, who react with glee each time they announce their next song and inspiring singalongs. Hailing from Oxford, an hour’s drive down the M40, the band refer to their sound as ‘Y2Kcore’, an apt name for the early 2000s pop-punk nostalgia it evokes.

South Arcade are the latest band to enjoy success from TikTok, with their track Murder hitting over 5 million streams thanks to going viral on the app. The lyrics for said track are passionately sung back by those who know it. Singer Harmony Cavelle may use more auto-tune on her vocals than fans of the genre might be used to, but South Arcade nonetheless get most of the room jumping up and down with boundless energy despite not being the top name on the flyer.

And with that, it’s time for war. One of the excellent charms of grassroots venues such as the Pioneer is getting to see the headline band make their way to the stage through the crowd, and punters turning round to see their heroes walking directly past them. Appearing on stage to a raucous welcome, Matlock sports his trademark Cobain-esque sunglasses, and Milkie Way in her own trademark of a bullet belt and very little else.

They tear straight into the latest single Circle Pit, with Matlock later complaining that no circle pit was seen, the complaint yielding an enormous circle pit as the next track starts. Those not wishing to get sucked into the melee hug the walls for dear life.

Those hoping to hear the Wargasm hits are not left disappointed, including the delicately named Fukstar, their enraged critique of the billionaire class. Spit brings about one of the biggest singalong moments of the evening, as the crowd bark ‘I only loved her ‘cos she looked like you’ back at the duo.

Their 2023 LP Venom sounds excellent live and direct; when Milkie Way announces “This next song features our good friend Fred Durst”, headbanging ensues in tandem with Bang Ya Head — any worries about whiplash have been cast out of the mind, and Matlock performs Durst’s verse as the Break Stuff singer sadly isn’t present in St Albans on this occasion.

During a richly deserved encore, the night closes with Wargasm’s song that wears their Prodigy influence particularly proudly, Do It So Good, ensuring the gig ends with adrenaline still ramped up high. As superstar-sized music venues appear to be this duo’s destiny, what a brilliant privilege it is to see them at the Pioneer Club, just another night in the venue’s incredible history.

Image credits: Jessie-Rose Lena