LIVE REVIEW: SeeYouSpaceCowboy, Graphic Nature, Cauldron, New Cross Inn, 20/06/2022
Photo Credit: Krissy Marie
Just like their most recent record The Romance Of Affliction, San Diego hardcore outfit SeeYouSpaceCowboy require some deep breathing exercises before their live shows. A full-on brutal assault on every sense in the human body, SeeYouSpaceCowboy don’t hold back. Whether that be on the recorded versions of their albums The Correlation Between Entrance And Exit Wounds or their latest The Romance Of Affliction, an album thrown into total darkness, no moonlight shining through in its songs that close in on the claustrophobia of no escape from the struggles of adversity, death or addiction, it’s signature SeeYouSpaceCowboy sound, only sucking up the little to no breathing room of the record. Live, this intensity is no exception, serving as the band’s pre-shows warm up to Outbreak Festival, SeeYouSpaceCowboy down at New Cross Inn was in equal measures heavy, chaotic and confrontational all over.
Before the San Diego band bring it, support comes courtesy of Cauldron, young hardcore upstarts who just dropped their recent single Futile and British nu-metal meets metalcore crew Graphic Nature, whose recent EP new skin causes some absolute scenes down at New Cross Inn. 7/10
Outpouring with emotion from the moment it gets going and SeeYouSpaceCowboy take to the staple home for hardcore acts in London, opener Misinterpreting Constellations cries out in pain, its outpouring of distraught translating into pure passion live, vocalist Connie Sgarbossa’s cleans hitting just as melodically hard as the scattered screams do when they crop-up.
They may be without the guest vocalist embellishments live, but songs such as the banger that is Life As A Soap Opera Plot, 26 Years Running. Originally featuring Keith Buckley in its original recording, live it doesn’t miss its collaborator, the band firing on all cylinders, providing a rager of a live track.
Perhaps on the new album front, its themes of pain and despair can be felt most live on Melodrama Between Two Entirely Bored Individuals. “Wasting my time, you’ve had it all along/Back and forth, back and forth, you’re okay” sings Sgarbossa, the craving of lust through misery and conflict in yourself before finding solace in someone else vividly apparent. SeeYouSpaceCowboy exhibiting a rocky journey through the hardest of times.
With some older SeeYouSpaceCowboy thrown into the setlist, which sees songs such as 911 Call: Help I’ve Overdosed on Philosophy! and Armed With Their Teeth performed, closer The End to a Brief Moment of Lasting Intimacy makes the full circle moment back to the best of The Romance Of Affliction material complete in an unflinching manner. 8/10
Words By: Katie Conway-Flood
