It’s been a great year for Manchester’s own Hot Milk. The band have released their debut album, performed on the main stage at Download Festival and been announced as the support act for the almighty Foo Fighters next year. Although they will have to wait until June 2024 to open for the Foo’s, Hot Milk have undergone their own headline tour in support of their first album A Call To The Void.
The London date on the tour, found the band from Manchester performing at O2 Forum Kentish Town, with the band providing support in the form of Modern Error and Witch Fever. Modern Error took to the stage first giving their performance everything they had, even if the crowd is rarely intrigued by the opener.
Witch Fever would follow on from Modern Error and delivered a full throttle punk rock show. Similar in sound to Wolf Alice, albeit only when they perform their heavier songs such as “Yuk Foo” and “Play The Greatest Hits”, nonetheless those are some of my favorite Wolf Alice songs.
So if you agree and enjoy a more bratty female punk sound, then look no further than Witch Fever. I had heard of these bands in passing before, but never had the pleasure of seeing them live and both bands made it clear as day that I had been missing out.
Finally, Hot Milk takes to the stage, building anticipation with their intro track “Welcome To The…”, before exploding into “Horror Show”. The band that defines themselves as an emotion, keep the modern pop punk anthems coming one after another as they blast through every track on A Call To The Void except the Julian Comeau featuring track “Amphetamine”.
Hot Milk didn’t just merely play their new album, as they also rounded out their 17 song setlist with tracks off I JUST WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I’M DEAD, as well as The King And Queen of Gasoline, plus standalone singles “Candy Coated Lie$” and “Glass Spiders”.
Personally, I believe their best work to be their EP I JUST WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I’M DEAD, so I loved the fact they played the title track, as well as “Split Personality” and “I Think I Hate Myself”.
This being said, I do feel the choices from The King And Queen Of Gasoline were rather weak, considering stronger songs such as “Take Your Jacket”, “Woozy” and “The Good Life” weren’t, however, every song Hot Milk played, they played with an endearing and infectious sense of fun and gallons of energy.
For a debut album tour, Hot Milk impressed greatly as they came out the gate swinging, delivering everything you would want from a live show and well and truly cemented themselves as an up and coming force to be reckoned with.
For fans of more sugary sweet sounding pop punk akin to All Time Low, Against The Current and 5 Seconds of Summer, Hot Milk is a band that should be right up your alley and top of your Spotify recommendation lists. This band is going places, which I for one can’t wait to see, so bring on album number 2.
Words by Dan Harden + Photography by Martina Antonia Liberini
