“Drink from the flowing gold, until it molds to your soul.“
There have a been a few headliners this year which have consisted of a line-up of bands who seem destined for bigger things to come. Spiritbox’s headliner with VEXED and Static Dress on support, as well as END‘s tour alongside Pupil Slicer and Heriot spring to mind as recent examples of this. Looking to add to this is Stray From The Path’s UK and EU tour which features Manchester’s Guilt Trip and US newcomers Vatican, who embarked on the tour having recently released one of 2022’s best records in the form of ULTRA. Scaling down from their previous tours, Stray From The Path‘s headliner sees the group opting for The Dome in Tuffnell Park over the O2 Islington, which hosted their 2019 tour.
Vatican have done their fair share of touring this year over in the States, first touring across the country with Spite, which was then followed by a string of shows with Alpha Wolf and Bodysnatcher. After such strenuous touring, many other bands would have perhaps settled down tours for the remainder of the years, yet Vatican embarked on a tour that is murky waters for many bands visiting from across the Atlantic, and entirely new ground for the band themselves. There had been word of mouth coming in from their Newcastle and Germany shows that the Georgia unit had the potential to be a show stealer and even as the last show of the tour came in, it is difficult to argue this. While Vatican did deserve a far better crowd response, their songs are as grand and enjoyable in a live setting as on the record. Many tracks from across ULTRA were played, alongside both tracks from the Become A New God double single, and back-catalogue heavy-hitter “Xero Line Crisis” also seeing a deserved live appearance. One can only hope that when Vatican return to our shores in 2023, and that the crowd is far more involved than the one they got here, given their recent material is arguably the strongest out of the three bands.
Guilt Trip put in a solid performance, at which this point the venue has begun to fill out a bit more and there was slightly more movement. Despite their arguable minor mis-step with 2021’s Rain City, Guilt Trip have always seemed a band destined for greatness in the heavy music sphere. Their debut record River of Lies still remains strong, however, containing bangers such as “Thin Ice” and “Tempest“, with the latter of which closing out the set to a strong response. While their sound does work best with a more receptive and hotter crowd, it’s difficult to avoid how fun their sound can be a live setting, and they are certainly one to keep on tabs on via whichever tour or festival they land next.
With this, all that was left to see perform was Stray From The Path. It’s one of the few shows that has had a certain weight of expectation given how incredible their previous live shows have been, with their previous 2019 headliner seeing support from Loathe and The Devil Wears Prada, and further the band appearing on a massive super-show in Bristol on Knocked Loose‘s headliner tour that brought in Malevolence and Renounced as further support. Their crowds are also known for their elevated level of participation, with the respective O2 Islington show on their headliner run seeming to be out to break the record for its amount of crowdsurfers – back when the venue didn’t threaten to throw people out for it, mind you. With a now better venue in the form of The Dome, though, which contains no barrier, and a far better bar and pub below, it seemed like an ideal setup to top their previous performance here.
If anything at all, Stray From The Path always offer up an impassioned performance. It’s impossible not to get caught up in the moment, with frontman Drew York knowing how to work and get a crowd going. Opening with furious tracks such as “III“, “Goodnight Alt-Right” and “The Opening Move“, there was a level of expected involvement from the crowd, with the latter of the three seeing a feature from Vatican‘s Mike Sugars, and later track “Second Death” including Guilt Trip‘s Jay Valentine. Across their 13-track performance, including set mainstay “First World Problem Child“, it’s evident that Stray are veterans of the game at this point. Their performance was faultless, and they clearly know how to pace a setlist to keep a crowd going throughout the show.
It does perhaps seem the bar of their previous tour was set too high, though, with a tinge of disappointment lurking from the band upon the shows end due to a lack of response to York‘s callouts. It is through no fault of their own, yet perhaps due to a more absent-minded or show-inexperienced crowd at this show than seen at previous. This aligned with the lack of response to the supporting acts from the crowd – something that occurred during 2019, mostly notably during Loathe‘s set. Through this, it is a struggle not to be torn how to feel about this show, despite the performances on display being stellar from start to finish. While The Dome remains one of the best venues in London, especially when it comes to drinks pricing, the Stray headliner’s potential to be one of 2022’s best shows remained unseen due to this noted lack of crowd response.
If you’re yet to check out either Stray From The Path or Vatican‘s barnburner records from this year, make sure to check out the records here and here.