Outbreak 2025 – Pageant Overview

Outbreak Pageant 2025
Bowlers Exhibition Centre, Manchester & Victoria Park, London
thirteenth –fifteenth June 2025

The mecca of hardcore delivers its most various and intense instalment up to now

Because the UK’s musical grassroots faces a more durable actuality than ever, what a pleasure it’s to see successful story like Outbreak Pageant in motion. What started as a one-day occasion organised by two fourteen(!)-year-old punks at a neighborhood centre in Sheffield in 2011 has grown organically into arguably the world’s premier celebration of hardcore, and one which has expanded to 3 days; a sooner or later gathering in London adopted by two days at a sprawling conference centre complicated in Manchester. The competition attracts each bands and followers alike from everywhere in the world. Our reviewer, Joe, was on the Manchester web site which options in most of this overview, whereas photographer Paul was at London, and many of the acts performed at each websites.

It’s broadened its style horizons, too, to incorporate every thing from basic emo to shoegaze to hip hop, in a fastidiously curated method that distills, quite than dilutes, the competition’s musical ethos. Proof of the broader internet forged by the bookers comes early on day one, with the gloriously atmospheric queer post-punk of Mannequin/Actriz happening a storm on the second stage. Cole Haden lays down an early marker within the contest for the weekend’s most partaking frontperson, dragging the viewers head-first into the stormy chaos of final month’s very good second LP, Pirouette. As if to vindicate the gang’s response, simply days later the band make their US TV debut on Stephen Colbert with one of the vital talked-about late night time chat present performances in years.

Exterior, julie make for a equally scintillating, if far more measured, proposition; the Los Angeles trio meld noise rock and shoegaze to thrilling impact throughout a set that leans closely on final yr’s debut album, My Anti-Plane Good friend. That title is a becoming one for a gaggle that blends melody with heavy artillery, significantly in Dillon Lee’s relentless, piercing work on drums.

They heat up the primary stage properly forward of a set that represents the primary – however not at all the final – actual coup of the weekend for the competition. Sunny Day Actual Property are icons of emo, pioneering a sound someplace between post-hardcore and alt-rock that may dominate the style within the Nineties. Regardless of their legendary standing and the continuing emo revival, although, that they had not performed within the UK since 2009, and frontman Jeremy Enigk admits from the primary stage that he’s at a loss to clarify why. His voice is remarkably unchanged for the reason that group’s heyday, and the band rip via each the massive hits (Seven, In Circles) and deeper cuts (Novum Vetus, Pillars) with an urgency that means they’re absolutely conscious of how a lot misplaced time they need to make up for. It’s a deal with for the diehards each new and sufficiently old to recollect the band’s early days, whereas the uninitiated will certainly have recognised simply how a lot the band have influenced subsequent generations.

Maybe an much more eye-catching title on this yr’s lineup is Have a Good Life, a band of the same classic to Sunny Day Actual Property however who had by no means, till now, performed reside within the UK. The experimental rockers have had a slow-burn to cult success that sort of mirrors their sound; their songs are sometimes epics, slowly unspooling in direction of an emotional crescendo. They ship what is likely to be the weekend’s standout set, constructing entire worlds of rolling drama throughout the confines of the second stage, with frontman Dan Barrett straining ever sinew as he roars together with the gang to the likes of Guggenheim Wax Museum and Bloodhail. The set nearer, Earthmover, is nearly indescribably intense, a maelstrom of crushingly loud catharsis. They absolutely can not let extra many years slip by earlier than they return.

The group staggers again out into the solar in a daze after that, and finds a welcome counterpoint to Have A Good Life’s depth in shoegaze icons Slowdive. The Studying outfit have loved an unimaginable renaissance amongst a brand new technology of listeners over the previous few years, however what’s particular about their set is that you just absolutely get to see that performed out in entrance of you, as a strikingly younger crowd pack the platform on the entrance of the stage for hovering takes on Souvlaki House Station and When The Solar Hits. Singer Rachel Goswell appears to recognise this, too, sporting a everlasting grin all through. When the band break up amid disinterest and blended opinions within the Nineties, by no means might they’ve imagined that their sound would resonate so richly many years later – or that they might nonetheless be turning out among the greatest work of their profession, as latest cuts like Shanty and Avalyn show.

Again inside on the smallest of the three levels, St. Louis five-piece Foxing, one of many foremost bands of the most recent wave of emo, ship a sometimes impassioned set that features the sweeping title monitor from their masterpiece, 2017’s Nearer My God, in addition to their signature tune Rory to shut; a nakedly emotional anthem that is without doubt one of the few rock songs able to sparking pure mayhem with a trumpet solo.

Day one begins to wind down with a headline flip by Alex G. The near-un-categorisable singer-songwriter appears an odd alternative for the competition on the face of it, along with his prolific output operating the gamut from blissed-out indie pop to experimental lo-fi. He and his band determine to deal with that by clicking into indie rock mode for the night, blasting via tracks like Headroom Piano, Forgive and Kicker with a poise and pointedness that brings the hazy studio variations into sharp reside focus. What does nonetheless come via unscathed from his albums is his sense of playfulness: an improvised tune about Manchester, in addition to a tease of Oasis’ Don’t Look Again in Anger, assist win the gang over.

Closing proceedings on the second stage is Danny Brown, who’s off-kilter, experimental reinvention of hip hop appears an ideal match for Outbreak – making it all of the extra shocking that that is his debut. He blasts via a career-spanning set with irrepressible power, one that features a raft of tracks from his JPEGMAFIA collaboration Scaring The Hoes. He makes up for his collaborator’s absence on these tracks with the sheer power of his stage presence alone.

The lineup on day two skews heavier than on Saturday, one thing epitomised by an incendiary set by Deafheaven within the early night. The Californians are one other band who appear to have Outbreak’s ethos embedded of their musical DNA, one way or the other discovering a strategy to ingeniously convey collectively shoegaze aesthetics with punishing guitars and screamed vocals. Later, there’s a thirty-minute delay earlier than Denzel Curry takes the stage, which solely helps to conjure up the sort of febrile ambiance that the Floridian was born to feed off. When he does arrive, he takes us on a breakneck tour of one of the vital constantly thrilling catalogues in latest rap historical past, and one that’s pointedly political – he leads the gang in a ‘Fuck ICE’ chant in protest at President Trump’s racist immigration insurance policies, and closes with a blistering cowl of Rage In opposition to The Machine’s Bulls On Parade.

It helps set the stage for what is likely to be probably the most anticipated set of the weekend. Knocked Free might be the most popular property in hardcore on the minute, their model of metal-infused punk actually catching hearth final yr on their very good third album, You Gained’t Go Earlier than You’re Supposed To. Taking the stage wordlessly in entrance of a glowing neon cross, they tear straight into Blinding Religion and the gang goes from febrile to feral. Even then, frontman Bryan Garris isn’t glad, repeatedly goading the gang as the strain continues to ratchet up via a star-studded set that sees visitor turns from George Clarke of Deafheaven, Jem Siow of Pace, Leah Massey of Pest Management and Kadeem France of Detest. The set is a triumph, and represents Outbreak in microcosm, in that it’s a towering testomony to the rejection of compromise. Right here’s to the following fifteen years.

Put up-script from Paul Grace, at Outbreak London:

The day earlier than Outbreak Manchester, Turnstile headlined the London iteration of the competition the place the Baltimore five-piece stamped their function as considered one of hardcore’s most dynamic world export, skilfully merging old-school aggression with melodic sophistication. Opening with an explosive By no means Sufficient, the band scorched via a high-octane set that featured tracks predominantly from the their final two beautiful information. Singer Brendan Yates was on sensible type – his gravity-defying bounce strikes are worthy of a headline set all of their very own. A triumphant night time for each Turnstile and Outbreak — thunderstorm and all.

~

Phrases by Joe Goggins

All images © Paul Grace. For extra of Paul’s writing and images go to his archive. Paul is on Fb, Twitter, Instagram, and his web sites are www.paulgrace-eventphotos.co.uk & www.pgrace.co.uk