Review: Don Broco at the Northumbria Institute

Don Broco released their third record, Technology, on the 2nd of February 2018. The album reached number five in the UK chart, following the release of various singles from the album including ‘T-Shirt Song’ which was featured on Radio 1 as Annie Mac’s World’s Hottest Record in October 2017.

 

After seeing Technology’s success and listening to Carys’ very swanky limited edition vinyl copy, we were extremely excited to catch them on their recent tour. We arrived in time for the second support band, ‘Man With A Mission’, to see the band onstage wearing huge wolf heads, with creepy illuminated eyes! The Japanese band provided a great warm up show with their energetic sound, which mixed pop synths, a guy creating interesting sounds and samples on record decks at the back, and heavy rock riffs. The scary masks were very iconic and added to the band’s unique vibe.

Don Broco’s set was as energetic as usual, and not for the faint-hearted. However, their concern for fans’ safety is clear, in that they create a kind of controlled chaos with the crowd encouraged to create circle pits, walls of death and even do press-ups only at certain set points during the gig. New tracks from Technology, including ‘Greatness’ and ‘Porkies’, were very well received by the crowd, along with old favourites including ‘Thug Workout’ (for which the entertaining ‘laddish’ spoof video can still be found on YouTube) – they definitely know how to please fans with the perfect setlist.

 

Rob Damiani holds an incredible stage presence, delivering a suave and captivating performance. The rest of the band also deserve recognition for equally energetic performances; they really make an effort to engage with fans – the bassist Tom often caught our eye whilst we were singing manically. The gig concluded on an incredible high with the single ‘T-Shirt Song’. This song encourages the crowd to “take [their] t-shirt[s] off, swing it around [their] head[s]” – we participated in this euphoric t-shirt swinging with great gusto, which was a fantastic end to an incredible gig, a moment we will never forget.

After this sold-out tour, the band are hitting more venues across the UK and Ireland soon, and will be making various festival appearances, so do catch them if you can, you will not be disappointed.

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