There are those rare moments when you leave a venue and you think to yourself “this was the gig of the year and I was here to witness it” – and this was the case on a seemingly random Monday summer’s evening in Camden, when the queue to Electric Ballroom was well and truly formed by the time I arrived for just before 7pm.
The venue filled in instantly and by the time Die Spitz took to the stage, it was bursting in the seams with excitement – and then Kate Halter walked onto the stage on her hands – we are talking a perfect handstand, the one I have been setting myself as a moving goalpost in yoga for the last few years – and the bar was set high not just for the night ahead, but for any other artist to ever walk out onto the stage for eternity and beyond. Looking through my photos from that entrance, I noticed the rest of the band waltzing casually behind Kate, with Ellie Livingston taking a swing from a bottle of beer – and if I didn’t think so before, that would have been the moment to think to myself “I am witnessing the birth of rock icons right before my eyes”. But I knew that already, because I saw them completely own the stage at 2000 Trees Festival last year, I have been playing their debut LP Something To Consume on repeat and I’ve been saying they are Nirvana incarnate to anyone who would listen. Whatever Die Spitz are selling – I am buying, no questions asked. Have I said that they are the best band on the planet multiple times since? Yes, unashamedly.
I am not alone in that. The front row was ecstatic to be there, and I chatted to people who have been on the Die Spitz hype train since 2022 and have seen them live every single time they played London – and every single time they have gone through a venue upgrade. This proves that when you have genuine rage flowing through your veins and can channel it into heavy riffs, people will follow. And the fact that the stages are getting bigger doesn’t seem to faze the Austin quartet – they own every square inch of it, each with their own distinct personality and bags of energy. When Ellie commanded the crowd to “open it up!!” – Electric Ballroom parted as if it was the Red Sea and a neat circle pit formed with happy moshers. Meanwhile on stage headstands were followed by jumps, high kicks, many back bends, infinite headbangs – and instrument swaps when Ava Schrobilgen took to the drums and handed over bass duties to Chloe de St. Aubin halfway-ish through the set, after the titular ‘Something To Consume’, which hit so hard live.
Die Spitz have feral charisma for days and by the time I packed my cameras away, I was blissfully sweaty and spent – so much so that I missed documenting Ellie crowdsurfing with her guitar and joining the moshing fans in the circle pit because I was busy giddily buying myself vinyl and a cute tank top that says ‘I HATE WHEN GIRLS DIE’, which will instantly become a summer staple. It’s a truly exhilarating feeling to know you were there at the beginning of a music career that could define a generation – and maybe I am still giddy from the gig and riding high on the tank top purchase, but this is what it feels like.
Die Spitz at Electric Ballroom – photo by Magda Campagne 
Die Spitz at Electric Ballroom – photo by Magda Campagne 
Die Spitz at Electric Ballroom – photo by Magda Campagne 
Die Spitz at Electric Ballroom – photo by Magda Campagne 
Die Spitz at Electric Ballroom – photo by Magda Campagne 
Die Spitz at Electric Ballroom – photo by Magda Campagne 
Die Spitz at Electric Ballroom – photo by Magda Campagne 
Die Spitz at Electric Ballroom – photo by Magda Campagne 
Die Spitz at Electric Ballroom – photo by Magda Campagne
LA doom trio Faetooth warmed the crowd perfectly – they were HEAVY with a capital H, positively ferocious, but also incredibly playful. You didn’t think doom can be playful? You haven’t seen Faetooth yet. They started slow and sludgy, with the kind of glorious doom I could simply bathe in, but by the end of the night they were in the mood for dance, and the audience was happy to oblige. What was even more special was seeing Die Spitz come out for the last few songs, hide behind the side stage curtain and enjoy Faetooth’s performance just as much as the audience did – it must be so much fun to take your mates on tour with you and get to cheer them on every night. When it came to Faetooth’s last song, the crowd was booing with genuine disappointment – which proves what a fantastic fit they were for the night.
The only thing I would be remiss to mention was the front row. When Die Spitz launched into ‘American Porn’, the song that takes direct aim at the creepy older men who come to their shows to leer at them, I rewound my memory to the beginning of the set, when I was in the photo pit awaiting the chaos to unravel, and I counted the women in the front row – there were six. In a 1500-cap venue. I am not saying that every middle aged man in that front row was there for nefarious reasons, some seemed to be genuine fans, but it seems that however many shows where young women tear the stage up I go to – it is rarely “girls to the front” in the audience, however loud the bands remark on it. I don’t have an answer for this issue – on one hand side I respect people turning up early for their prime spot whatever their age and gender – but in certain contexts I cannot ignore it either.