Rock Monsters Romania

It had been two years since Shame wreaked havoc on the stage of Control, and this autumn, they will return for another legendary show on Tuesday, October 28.

“Their shows aren’t performance art — they’re direct, confrontational, raw.” Audiences felt that. And they had been waiting for more.

Crucial to this incendiary new outlook was producer John Congleton (St. Vincent, Angel Olsen). From their initial meeting, Congleton’s no-nonsense approach became a guiding force that helped streamline the band’s ideas.

Stamped throughout with Shame’s trademark sense of humour, the album tackled the big issues of the day and gleefully toyed with them. With Trump in the White House and the band holed up in Salvation Studios in Brighton, they cast a merciless eye on themes of conflict and corruption; hunger and desire; lust, envy, and the omnipresent shadow of cowardice.

Musically, the record experimented with visceral new ideas. While making electronic music on tour for fun, Coyle-Smith had previously viewed the loops he was crafting as separate from what he wrote for Shame. Then he realised they didn’t have to be. “This time, anything could go if it sounded good and you got it right,” he said.

Post-punk fury. Electronic grit. Indie hedonism. It sounded like a mosh pit waiting to happen.

BRAINWASHER

Supporting this wild ride was Brainwasher, delivering restless noise for the disillusioned digital age. Fresh blood from Bucharest’s underground, they played like they had nothing to lose and everything to scream about.

Explosive and unfiltered, their sound slammed together hardcore urgency, dance-punk swagger, and a taste for the chaotic. Loud, fast, and gloriously feral, they weren’t here to play it safe.

The band confronted social inequality, class divide, and the sterile realities of digital life, all through a sharp, often self-reflective lens.

Tickets are available here.