Periphery at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town
Periphery on stage at the O2 Forum
Another Friday night, another excellent gig. With the amount of great bands that flow through London, it’s hard to pick out which concerts to attend. This is one I’m absolutely glad I chose to go and see.
The night started out with the two support acts for Periphery’s European tour in support of ‘Periphery IV: HAIL STAN’. Firstly, Asteroid. Unfortunately I missed most of their set enjoying the queue outside the building, but the latter end of it sounded smashing.
Second up was Plini. I first saw him at Be Prog! My Friend in 2017. Tonight, Plini and his accompanying band played a tight set with funky basslines and explosive drum solos. The musicians were incredibly tight and in-sync with each other with a note never out of place. It’s hard to get instrumental music to stand out well on it’s own, but Plini does a fantastic job. The crew also decided to pull out a birthday cake for the bass player which he somehow managed to eat while continuing to slap the bass. Truly a multi-talented musician.
As the crowd waiting in anticipation, the outro of ‘Crush’ began to play across the speakers. It was about to begin.
The first track of the evening from Periphery was ‘Reptile’ off of their latest record ‘HAIL STAN’. Even at 16 minutes in length, the crowd were excitedly singing along near instantaneously. Some members of Plini also came on stage to join in the performance of this track for some added camaraderie.
It didn’t take long after the first track for the vast majority of the standing area to turn into a giant mosh pit. With Misha Mansoor (Guitar) encouraging a rather large wall of death, the rest of the evening turned into relentless moshing, crowd surfing, and energy. We had a bit more from ‘HAIL STAN’ with ‘CHVRCH BVNER’ before heading into the past with ‘Remain Indoors’.
The set mostly focused on ‘HAIL STAN’, but did touch on some older material from ‘Juggernaut: Alpha’ as well as ‘Periphery II: This Time It’s Personal’ which led to a well balanced evening for old fans and new fans.
Frequently I find that show-goers are afraid to bite into a bands new material and just stick with the classics they know. That wasn’t the case with Periphery as every time a track came on from the new album, the audience sure as anything knew exactly when to bang their heads.
As the evening went on and Periphery continued to playing some cracking tracks, all of the classic events went on that you would expect from a good night out at a metal concert. A guy lost his shoe and subsequently got reunited with it, someone had mysterious blood stains on their back which were clearly from someone else, there was even a crazed fan who’d written on a sign “MISHA WILL YOU PERIPHER-EAT MY ASS” which I found amusing.
The crowd thanking Periphery after a great show
I love the energy at these kind of gigs where the crowd don’t hold back, and it’s clear that the band are enjoying performing just as much as we the audience are enjoying the performance.
Periphery finished with ‘Lune’ from their album ‘Select Difficulty’. A great ending to an excellent album, a hectic evening, and an even better European tour. As always, I look forward to seeing Periphery again next time they’re in town.
