The Swedish post-punks bring their invigorating live show to Newcastle
Image by Marcus Wilen
Though the 2018 debut Street Worms may have started their trajectory, it was Viagra Boys’ 2021 release Welfare Jazz that threw the Swedish post-punks into the zeitgeist.
The crazed record holds a magnifying glass to a disillusioned world of a fetishised rock ‘n’ roll persona that is beginning to crumble into reality. Telling stories of addiction and chaos, the album narrates the turmoil-fuelled fall into hopelessness; spinning off into wild, impassioned tangents, the album translates this disparity into danceable and moving punk hits.
With low, rumbling rhythms and guttural noise of Sebastian Murphy’s archetypal vocals that almost begin to parody machismo and power, the velocity unleashed on the album provides a violent sense of escapism that entraps you in its desperate and lost world.
Welfare Jazz sees the band establishing their credentials as a daring new commotion and their live shows refuse to diminish that reputation; North East audiences can find out for themselves at Newcastle University Students’ Union on Thursday 16th December. With all the emotions barging against the audience throughout the show, the band are sighted as an invigorating and rowdy experience. Jumping between potent storytelling and filthy, brazen instrumentation, they disguise their cynicism under an array of deliriously giddy and enthused hits.
Viagra Boys play Newcastle University Students’ Union on Thursday 16th December