Having seen Mallory Knox twice before at Slam Dunk, I chose to review this gig because I knew how much emotion gets put into their music, and how great it sounds when played on stage. I came to this expecting to have a sore throat the next day from singing (badly) along to most of the songs.
When I first got in, Scottish rock band The Xcerts were starting the night off. Although I only got to see a couple songs it was clear that they were well suited to be playing here. The final song they played, ‘There is Only You’, started off acoustic before the rest of the band burst in half way through.
Next up were another band who I really admire and have seen twice already this year, Set It Off. While this wasn’t the best show I’ve been to, it still had it usual theatrics, emotion and motivational speeches. At this show I heard a new song that I hadn’t heard before: ‘Wild Wild World’, from their acoustic album “Duality: Stories Unplugged.” Before the song started Cody Carlson’s speech was about how there is still too much homophobia and racism in this world and how it’s time to move on. The set finished with ‘Why Worry’, their most popular gospel-themed song. The song’s verses are fairly dark but then the chorus comes in all positive – “why worry” about it?
Finally, Mallory Knox. To increase tension during the setup a curtain was put across the stage and was dropped when they came on playing ‘Shout at the Moon’. Though the room was fairly empty at the start of the night, it had become packed with hardcore fans, everybody on the floor was jumping around singing along. At one point a mosh pit even opened, which I wasn’t expecting. The majority of songs played, including my favourites ‘Ghost In the Mirror’ and ‘Heart & Desire’, were off their 2014 album Asymmetry. I was very impressed with the lighting as well, having their own strobes and “MK” lights in theme with their new album cover. The final song during the encore was ‘Lighthouse’, the song I always think of when I speak about Mallory Knox and reminisce of the first time I saw them at the hot Slam Dunk festival of 2013. By far their best song in my opinion, it was a great way to end a fantastic night.
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