“Stay out of Georgia.“
It seems a fairly uncommon feature of a tour these days to have two bands on the line-up. In the case here, The Callous Daoboys who are playing a string of shows around their Download Festival appearance, have opted to have to have the lone support of one of the UK’s finest in Cauldron. Both come off the back of successful releases in 2023, with Daoboys dropping EP God Smiles Upon The Callous Daoboys and Cauldron releasing their debut full-length in the form of Suicide In The City. There is no doubt an expectation of something grand being possible on this tour.
Words by Joe, photography by Dory Valentine (Fish Outta Water Media).
Cauldron
The list of bands who Cauldron have played alongside and supported is more than impressive; Counterparts, Dying Wish, Speed, Kanonashi, World Of Pleasure and Justice for the Damned. This alongside several headliner shows of their own and festival appearance’s, including Burn It Down and 2000 Trees later this summer. It is fair on that, Cauldron are a band who have put the miles in, and it more than shows in terms of their presence on stage and performance as a unit each time they perform on stage with this show being no different.
Pelting the set into life came “Falling Snow (Seattle 2)“, its frantic nature moving between crashing symbols, chugging riffs and Cassling barking mic-grab worthy hooks “Now, who’ll waltz the floor?, When all that we hear are mothers crying?” before ending out with a spin-kick breakdown that saw a small portion of the room break into the moves of their choice.
Between shows, tours, festivals and all that, Cauldron have always been fairly good at switching up their set-list. While it does mean some of the expected favourites may not appear, it does lead to a feeling that you’ve never seen the same set-list twice, unless you decide to go see them on the same tour twice or more. A fine balance of past and present material was offered up, with “Crossing the Threshold” popping up with Cassling giving a shoutout to Ribena between tracks.
Two personal favourites in “Futile” and “The Last Words“ were included, with “Rejection Pact” between, allowing “I’m with you forever” to be screamed back. “The Last Words” continues it’s case for being one of the hardest live songs, with Cassling switch between his harsh vocals and lows on the breakdown that has the ability to knock a tooth loose with its viciousness. While there was a sneaking sense that perhaps most of the crowd didn’t have Cauldron in their regular listening rotation, with most seeming to draw from the ArcTanGent crowd, another impressive performance from the Birmingham unit hopefully drew in some new fans.
The Callous Daoboys
The famed The Callous Daoboys, back once again after headline touring in the UK last year around their appearance at ArcTanGent and supporting TesseracT earlier this year. Known for their humorous style of mathcore, blending a heavier strain of the genre with quick lyric quips. Clips of vocalist Caron‘s pre-breakdown pit calls making themselves somewhat viral with shouts of “If you’ve got health insurance, fucking prove it” and “If you’ve got a college degree put it in the fucking shredder“. This with their breakdowns being amped a notch live, it did seem that perhaps potential something hectic to happen.
Bursting open with tracks from God Smiles Upon The Callous Daoboys in “Pushing the Pink Envelope” and “Waco Jesus“, the energy that Daoboys have burst through the room. The push pit opened, with Carson calling for more on each breakdown, even if it never did quite reach the madness that could have been expected. What was evident is that the Daoboy die-hards knew the lyrics word by word, each being shouted back at Carson and the occasional mic grab making an appearance.
What also shouldn’t go unmentioned is how tight The Callous Daoboys are a live unit giving the several moving parts in their performance. While a few adjustments were made throughout the set with the sound booth, at no point did anything seem to be out of balance, including Christman‘s violin being plenty audible during each track.
While perhaps not as a chaotic show that The Callous Daoboys have done before, they’re still a grand band to see live and their sound translates well to a live setting. For those who are even acutely fans of the Daoboys, I’d say it’s worth seeing them at least once just to see how they pull it off and to find joy in the quips they throw not just during their songs but between sets too.
You can read our review of TesseracT, Unprocessed & The Callous Daoboys at the O2 Kentish Town Forum here.