LIVE REVIEW: The Boxer Rebellion, Low Island, Ry Cox, KOKO, London, 07/03/2025
Photo Credit: Kevin O’Sullivan
After a five-year hiatus, the London-based The Boxer Rebellion popped back in 2023 for a brief little six-date European tour. Now, armed with new four-track EP Open Arms, the band have signified their return with an extensive tour, including one night at a sold-out KOKO in Camden — read on to find out what happened.
With doors at 6pm rather than the typical 7pm, the crowd took a little while to get going. Anyone attending after work, for instance, likely wouldn’t get there for a good hour — but needs must before a club night. All that really meant was the first support, Ry Cox, didn’t have much of a crowd to work with. With the American singer songwriter encased in the spotlights that rained down around him, only a gentle acoustic guitar for company, it looked a lonely sight. Yet, as his guitar strums echoed throughout the venue, an understated yet powerful voice crooning through the air, you couldn’t help but marvel at the talent on stage and couldn’t help but be immersed in the deep, emotional soundscapes emanating from the stage. He might not have been the most natural orator, but he more than made up for it with a stunningly heartfelt performance to a captivated crowd that, despite perhaps being a little nonplussed at first, couldn’t get enough. With a set comprised of tracks taken from his upcoming album The Great Homesickness, the crowd might not have known him going in — but they sure as hell knew him coming out. 9/10
Next up, KOKO was treated to the Oxford four-piece Low Island. As the four piece splayed themselves across the stage, drummer Felix Higginbottom seeming particularly ensconced in his little instrumental burrow, it was hard to know what to think — and even the band embarking on their little supporting music odyssey didn’t seem to help too much, the next half an hour or so a kaleidoscopic mishmash of genres and sounds that somehow all seemed to work. With spotlights casting hypnotic patterns around the room, you couldn’t help but be washed away by the calming harmonies of Carlos Posada and Jamie Jay as they meandered across the room… and then suddenly you’d get a track like great dream, flourishes of surreal, ethereal, electronic-esque tones over the strikingly low tuning of the guitar, all building to a storming crescendo to jolt you to alertness, or the art-pop, buffoonic brilliance of the likes of Everything Everything, with a dash of post-punk flair for good measure, with tracks like Search Box. It’s impossible to characterise the set, but it was a hell of a lot of fun regardless. 8/10
And then it was time for The Boxer Rebellion’s return to the London stage. With Nathan Nicholson already jumping in excitement, it was all guns a-blazing from the word go. The duo openers of Semi-Automatic and Step Out Of The Car set the tone for the evening, the spotlight reflecting off the disco ball hanging above the stage sending glimmers of light cascading across the room and raining down on the band — it wasn’t to be just a musical performance but a visual spectacle, with even the lady at the light desk dancing in her seat. Powdered Sugar followed, with its synth-heavy, saccharine tones carrying through the air, a reminder of how the band have managed to fuse their indie roots with more polished, contemporary soundscapes.
Despite being a packed, sold-out show, the atmosphere was remarkably quiet at times as the audience let the dulcet sounds of Nicholson and co. wash over them. Tracks like Love Yourself and Both Sides Are Even were met with rapturous cheers, but the energy quickly settled back into a more reflective, hushed silence — not necessarily from lack of enthusiasm, but just from the immersive nature of the music itself. Big Ideas did manage to bring the crowd back to life, a jubilant moment that showcased the band’s ability to command both stillness and movement in the room, but it wasn’t long before that same pseudo-reverential calm captured the room once more…
And then the band launched into What The Fuck. Although the song is largely acoustic, almost haunting in its quietly anguished despondency, the extended bridge built to an almost overwhelming cacophony… and the crowd loved every second. Still, it was hard not to imagine a world where that was the closer of the set; add some more intensity here, an explosive crescendo there, and it couldn’t have been beaten!
The mood shifted again with New York, starting with Nicholson alone at the keyboard, his voice gently carrying the track before the band piled in, their triplicate drumming giving the song a rhythmic pulse that felt almost hypnotic, all before Ry Cox joined the band onstage for Here I Am, his presence adding another layer to an already expansive sound. In moments like these, you could see the camaraderie between the musicians, all of them locked into the same rhythm and space, feeding off one another’s energy. Evacuate took on a ferocious new life, transforming into an art-grunge anthem of sorts, with red lights giving the band a sinister, sanguine glow, while Flight, a track so insidiously forceful that it prompted some of the crowd to push toward the front, as though Nicholson’s seething vocals were the centre of a venue-wide maelstrom sucking them in.
In the same vein, The Gospel of Goro Adachi built to such a climax, its bass-heavy rhythm pushing forward relentlessly whilst the double drums and double guitars ensured that the song had the raw power it deserved, that it felt like the room could erupt into violence at the slightest provocation… and then the night was over.
Guys, it’s over, you don’t need to keep reading.
Wait, what’s this? The band returned to play more songs? How unexpected!
The final stretch of the set — Let It Go, Flashing Red Light Means Go, Diamonds, and Dream — was a beautiful, cathartic release. The latter was particularly poignant, with Nicholson dedicating it to their families who have to endure the chaos of a musician’s life (and livelihood!), but all four comfortably held their own.
By the end of the night, it was clear that The Boxer Rebellion had not only rediscovered their musical identity but had found a way to elevate their live show to new heights. The crowd even seemed an afterthought at times, the band lost in their own world and completely absorbed in the haunting, acerbic, and often brilliant sound they were creating.
It was a triumphant return, not just for the band, but for anyone who had been lucky enough to witness it. Let’s just hope the next one doesn’t take this long! 9/10
