The Ok’s | The Bracknall
Roundhouse, London
thirteenth Might 2025
The Ok’s final performed Roundhouse six years in the past supporting The Rifles. By the top of tonight’s efficiency it’s clear that, subsequent time they hit London, they’re prone to be headlining an excellent larger venue.
How does one choose the success of a gig? Is it by the band’s efficiency? How packed the venue is? The amount of the viewers’s singing, cheering, and chanting? The variety of folks up on shoulders? The variety of folks filming on their cellphones?
By all these measures, The Ok’s Roundhouse efficiency is an absolute triumph. However the actual standout metric for the Earlestown band is the amount of pints thrown by the gang. After simply quarter-hour within the pit, Louder Than Battle’s photographer Simon Reed is totally drenched. Even singer/guitarist Jamie Boyle can’t dodge the airborne beer and is greater than splashed in the course of the first tune; that he has a towel on the prepared suggests this might not be the primary time.
Admittedly the gang — much more various than simply lads who prefer to lob lager — have been totally warmed up by The Bracknall. Like tonight’s headliners (and the likes of The Lathums and The Reytons), they’re flying the flag for indie rock (and “The” band names). In a set filled with exact guitar- and keys-led songs from new album Falling Out Of View, standouts embody the power that’s No Means Again For Me and all-attitude Make It Occur. An prolonged tackle I Don’t Perceive It, from 2022’s Going Nowhere Quick, exhibits off a jammier facet that ends their efficiency on a celebratory notice.
That celebration turns to euphoria by the point The Ok’s launch into Headstone. From their upcoming second album, Fairly On The Web, the bristling set opener is the proper begin to a run of energetic, fast anthems: Icarus, Chancer, and particularly Coronary heart On My Sleeve. All function flashy solos from lead guitarist Ryan Breslin (spotlit, standing on his displays); large choruses that can at some point fill arenas; and (in all probability from years of touring these songs) much more gentle and shade than the variations on final 12 months’s debut LP, I Marvel If The World Is aware of.
The added dynamics of stay efficiency actually come to the fore on songs like Hoping Possibly, Throwing It All Away, and Lights Go Down. All start with a quiet intro (normally Boyle’s hovering voice accompanied by simply keys or an acoustic guitar) earlier than the band take part and invariably drop out in some unspecified time in the future to permit the gang to clap and/or sing alongside. Newest single Helen, Oh I is much more dramatic: a sluggish burn that rises in quantity and depth round Boyle’s magnificent vocal and ends in yet one more spontaneous singalong, though it’s solely been out for a month.
Simply as spectacular is 2019 single Aurora (a tune “we’ve not performed in years… a couple of woman from London city”), which builds as much as the evening’s most musically intense second: an particularly fiery Breslin solo and Nathan Friends drumming like he’s auditioning for Metallica. An edgy No Place Like House, with some aggressive bass enjoying by Dexter Baker, additionally sounds heavier than anticipated, whereas the 2022 single Image provides some extra spikiness and guitar heroics to proceedings. Tasty.
The Ok’s final performed Roundhouse six years in the past supporting The Rifles. By the point they attain Sarajevo and Dacton & Wanderella tonight it’s clear that subsequent time they hit London, they’re prone to be headlining an excellent larger venue, drenched in much more beer.
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You’ll find The Ok’s on their web site in addition to Fb, X, and Instagram.
Phrases by Nils van der Linden. You’ll be able to go to his creator profile for Louder Than Battle right here and his web site right here.
Pictures by Simon Reed. His web site Musical Photos is right here and you may go to his creator profile for Louder Than Battle right here. He tweets as @musicalpix.
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