It was a cold November night and all was quiet in the centre of Bristol.......until Don Broco turned up and tore it a new one…..

Kid Brunswick (Harry James) kicked off the night with his angry punk, alt rock, hip hop, grunge mix of thumping  beats and dark lyrics. He whipped the crowd into a frenzy with a sound akin to Linkin Park, and with his latest release XFOREVER supported by a collaboration with Mike Shinoda (the Linkin Park man!), you can see where at least some of his influence originates. He prowled the stage, he sat and glared and at one point I thought he was going to get in the crowd itself and join the moshing, but the audience loved it and he definitely picked up a few new fans throughout his set.

Next up was Noisy, where the Worthing outfit brought the beats, the guitars, and bit of rap and just about everything else as the audience bounced themselves towards the headline act.  The four piece brought bucketloads of energy and the crowd responded as the first circle pit of the evening spun into action. The blend of live instruments, coupled with beats and samples worked well and the sometimes rapper / sometimes singer Cody, pacing the stage drew it all together. Check out their latest single release Rock 'n' Raver in all of the usual places.

And then it was time for the main act.

And as the DJ slammed on banger after banger over the sound system, the crowd’s excitement grew, singing along to every word at the tops of their voices, to some real 'classics' from The Offspring, Andrew WK and a great Godsmack cover of the Beatles thumper, ‘Come Together’. Then Don Broco burst onto the stage with ‘Manchester Super Reds No.1 Fan’, and from the first beat it was a constant moving maelstrom of noise and light.

Hot on the heels of the release of their 4th album, Amazing Things, this was the last date of the tour for this Bedford outfit and they sounded slick and polished. Half the tracks from the new release found their way onto the set list and the pace and energy didn't let up through the first half dozen or so songs. And how the crowd responded. The circle pit was back as the band smashed through tracks both new and old. Lead singer Rob even had time to wind up a mate who was on his first date here at he gig with a ‘false’ proposal.

Kid Brunswick returned to the stage to help with ‘Action’ and then ‘Bruce Willis’ was greeted with a picture of said US actor behind the band and the crowd screaming “Yippee-kai-ay” right back at them. The encore ended with ‘t-shirt song’  and the obligatory shirts off and swinging them around your head as instructed by the lyrics, a fantastic spectacle.

And then it was over, a hot sweaty night at the O2 Academy Bristol came to a close and stillness fell upon the venue once again. Don Broco have some fantastically energetic and engaged fans and the band certainly deliver in every respect to return that energy. This is the first time for a long time that I have been to a gig and all of the bands not only complimented each other perfectly, but built the atmosphere from one to the next, not letting up the pace and building to a fabulous crescendo.  What a night.

Words and Pictures by GM Gig Photography