Photo Credit: Chiara Gambuto
The weather outside may have been wet but in the drier confines of Stereo in Glasgow we looked forward to seeing HotWax rip it up as they have been doing around the UK and beyond for the past year with their mix of punk and 90s grunge style sure to provide some great energy. The Hastings trio of Tallulah Sim-Savage (vocals and guitar), Lolo Sam (bass) and Alfie Sayers (drums) have been touring extensively recently supporting the likes of Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, Royal Blood as well as an appearance in the USA at SXSW in March to add to their credentials. We managed to have a chat with HotWax before their set which you can read in the coming days on BTN.
The first of the two supports were Brenda, a Glasgow all-female trio, they released a self-titled album in July 2023 and we would get to hear a few tracks from the album alongside a couple of new releases tonight. Brenda’s music can be described as synth-pop, very catchy tunes and all with big smiles on their faces. Interestingly all three band members took turns to sing as they worked through an eight track setlist including latest release Pigs, So Long which had Stevie Nicks influences, going down well with the growing crowd. Radiation was the highlight of the set; the song being written during the pandemic. Brenda will be releasing new music in 2024. 7/10
Next up was Aziya (pronounced AZ-EYE-YA) who prompted a large cheer from the fans when she took to the stage in a Scotland football shirt with a Tennent’s lager badge getting everyone onside straight away. Aziya was a new act for us but her talents soon shone through with some excellent guitar riffs alongside beautiful vocals backed up by a drummer in true Royal Blood style. Opener Atomic has well over 2 million streams on Spotify alone, by far their biggest song while recent release Party’s Over went down a treat with the one hundred and fifty or so attendees packed into Stereo now. Virgin Suicides was replaced with Girl Meets World, during the last song Slip Aziya came out into the crowd to everyone’s delight. We will be hearing a lot more from this duo in 2024. 8/10
Stereo was almost at capacity for The DIY Now & Next Tour as HotWax took to the stage around 9pm, starting off with Tell Me Everything’s Alright. The minute bass player Lola and the guitarist Tallulah picked up their instruments the crowd were mesmerised as they both used the full stage in true punk style with some incredible fretboard work as they interacted with each other. Incredibly these two have been playing together since the age of twelve at school, forming their first band at the tender age of fifteen, with drummer Alfie joining the band later when they met at college in Brighton. Phone Machine continues in the same high energy fashion as the set started while Treasure is one of the highlights of the set, just watching Lola Sam on the bass had us hooked as she played carefree with and without a pick and was certainly a master of her instrument. As Tallulah strutted around the stage like she owned it without a care in the world, incidentally, Sim-Savage comes from a musical background with her dad being none other than Hastings’ Dr Savage.
HotWax are in the process of writing an album for release either this year or in 2025 which will place them on a higher pedestal and follows the two EPs the band released in 2023 – A Thousand Times and Invite Me, Kindly – which were both produced by Ben Beetham of Kid Kapichi fame. As the eleven-track set drew to a close the night ended on a high with A Thousand Times which the band say they enjoy playing the most, with good interaction with the fans followed by High Tea. Rip It Out was a great track to end the night with the crowd joining in with the chorus “I wanna rip it out my arm, then I’ll rip it out my chest/Then I’ll rip it out my head ‘cause we were the best” as Tallulah and Lola ripped the place apart one last time. On the way out the venue a fan commented that he was disappointed they didn’t play Barbie (Not Yours), however maybe next time? 2024 is going to be HotWax’s year and nobody will stop their rise. 9/10
Written by: Alan Brown
