Puddle of Mudd play in Puddle of Sweat on Britain’s hottest day on record – Live review - Your Online Magazine for Hard Rock and Heavy Metal

Words: Molly Walker / Lucy Walker

Pictures: Lucy Walker

Now a few years back (or many) if you had told me I would be going to see Puddle of Mudd in Islington at the Assembly Hall, I would have laughed in your face. Yet, here I was on what has now been officially recognised as the hottest day ever in the UK. Oh god what hell furnace was this going to be tonight?? Small note – the venue staff were great handing out copious amounts of water to us very hot people – thank you!! And the industrial sized fans rocked as well.

Psycho Village

Psycho Village were the first band to play who hail from Vienna in Austria. They currently have an album out called ‘Selfmade Fairytale – part 1’. They are classed as a post-grunge band which seemed to be the theme with the support acts tonight but I kind of did not hear that with this group. They had an interesting set on stage involving large video screens which for me kind of detracted from them. At this stage, I wanted to hear a new band and the visuals seemed to take that concentration away from me. Saying that, this is not a boring band to watch. They leaped about and put an energy into their songs that always makes gigs so much more interesting than those groups who just stand at their mikes and sing. Daniel Kremsner on lead vocals and guitar belted out song after song especially ‘Half Caste Symphony’ but it was watching Maximilian Raps on Bass jumping about that really made it for my colleague and I and will lead me to having to check the rest of their songs out.

The Vigil

Bristol based band, The Vigil came on next with their alt-rock sound playing songs from their debut album ‘Save Our Souls’ and straight away I heard a few different people say that they sounded very much like Nirvana. There is the Seattle sound there though I could hear touches of Mudhoney and Soundgarden too. They play a very tight set and bounce off each other and basically looked like they were having a blast. The heavy guitar sound and the rhythm of the songs such as ‘All You’ve Done’ sounds very much of the grunge genre (though don’t make the mistake of thinking this is dated, its not) but as I am of that era, it resonated with me brilliantly. My colleague also got into this set especially with the poses also being thrown, especially by Rhys James playing bass and Olly Smith with guitar and lead vocals kept the crowd not feeling like they were just counting down the minutes until Puddle of Mudd came on. They were a good choice for this tour as they gave us everything they could and the crowd responded like they were the band they had come to see. All in all, this is a band worth checking out and hopefully they will be touring again soon.

Puddle of Mudd

And now here we were. In the blistering heat of the crown and the 37C temperature outside, the moment of truth was here. Were Puddle of Mudd here or were we going to be left to face the underground furnace of the Tube disappointed? The first note played and this stretched out to a few minutes of darkness when all of a sudden there was movement, the lights flashed on and Wes Scantlin had arrived and stood at the mic ready to begin!

I have been to see quite a few bands now that have that one song that kicked it all off for me and they always tend to play these songs near the end and lead us up there with their other songs. Lately however, I have been to a couple where they have begun with a bang and hit us with one of their biggest hits and thankfully Puddle of Mudd and Wes started this way. As soon as the first chord struck, we realised they were going to be playing Control. This instantly made the crowd go crazy and set the theme for the rest of the night. To be honest, as each song played that night, we all knew the words and we all sang out hearts out. The band were so tight and together and even though we only found this out later, supported Wes Scantlin who had come down with illness and yet had still come out to make sure we were not let down.

With Matt Fuller playing lead guitar and jumping about with a huge grin on his face and Michael John Adams on the other side just being the most smoothest and mellow bass player but also enjoying himself ridiculously, that feeling fed into the crowd as they played hit after hit. Wes did look tired at the beginning but it felt like the more he sang and played and the more the crowd sang back to him and with him, the more Wes seemed to revive and smile and actually enjoy himself. Hell, even with the torturous volcanic like temperature inside (I will not stop going on about it – it was hot and steamy), we all just basically had a ball and felt like we were in a party at their house.

Now thankfully Puddle of Mudd played so many of their hits such as ‘Psycho’ halfway through and then towards the end, ‘Blurry’ and ‘She Fuckin’ Hates Me’, so we all knew the words and joined in very loudly but POM then came out with their latest single ‘Uh Oh I Fucked It Up Again’ from their forthcoming album ‘Welcome to Galvania’ and I was happy. [Check out the new video below]

This song runs along the same vein as their previous tracks and apart from Wes’s comments prior to the song (yes he lost the house and the cars and got her out of his life and he is bloody happy), this does seem to tell us about what he has been going through over the past number of years. It was what we wanted and we had all been listening to this song since it began streaming on Spotify so once again we sang with him.

This guy and band know how to help us have fun and I can honestly say screw air-conditioning. There was no where else I wanted to be on the day the UK burned and sizzled than in a steamy hot venue with these guys.