Hot Mulligan made a stop in Norwich on their European Festival tour, bringing along Beauty School for the ride. As the venue filled up, the merch queue went all the way to the other side of the venue, something I’ve not seen at The Waterfront before. This made it evident to me that this was a show everyone was excited for and no one expected.
As the venue almost hit capacity it was time for Beauty School, a six-piece band from Leeds. Instantly this band was doing exactly what they came to do, the crowd were absolutely loving every moment. Lead vocalist Joe Cabrera, asked the audience who had heard of them before and was genuinely surprised at the amount of people that had, which was quite sweet to witness!
Beauty School recently released a new track called Reaper featuring Dan Campbell from The Wonder Years (one of my personal favourite bands) so this collaboration is so cool to me and I’m sure it is for them too, if you’ve not heard it yet, I’d definitely listen to it asap. Beauty School ended their set with my personal favourite song Pawn Shop Jewels, they had the crowd singing and dancing along and was the perfect end to their set.
Beauty School @ The Waterfront, Norwich – Photo by Kayleigh Francis
It’s not often that bands tour with only one support band nowadays but I do like it as it gives people time to get into the venue so the support isn’t playing to a somewhat empty crowd, and they get to play for longer so I’m all for it but equally if you have more, the people that do get there early get to see more bands so I won’t complain either way, but I’m rambling now.
It was time for Hot Mulligan a band I’ve been wanting to see live for years, they’ve toured the UK a few times but never come to Norwich as far as I’m aware. The room was packed full and as the band came out and played their first song ‘How Do You Know It’s Not Armadillo Shells?’ you could tell right away it was going to be a real sweaty show.
The energy on stage was reflected by the crowd, all yelling lyrics and jumping in synchronicity and despite signs all around the venue saying ‘no crowd surfing’ the crowd surfers were in full force. Guitarist Chris Freeman made a comment about his t-shirt ‘smelling of cat piss’ so that formed an ongoing joke throughout the set with the crowd chanting “piss” at the band all night.
The setlist was phenomenal, everything I could’ve asked for, and one of the few bands to sound exactly how they do on their tracks. They ended their set with the latest single ‘End Eric Sparrow and the Life of Him’ and ‘John “The Rock” Cena, Can You Smell What the Undertaker’, the energy and buzz in the room was impeccable and of course they left the stage to the crowd chanting “piss”.
Hot Mulligan @ The Waterfront, Norwich – Photo by Kayleigh Francis