Babymetal Live at Brixton Academy, 2 July 2019 Riho Sayashi as Riho-Metal, Suzuka Nakamoto as Su-metal, and Moa Kikuchi as Moa-Metal © Copyright Stewart Marsden — Babymetal Live at Brixton Academy, 2 July 2019
Riho Sayashi as Riho-Metal, Suzuka Nakamoto as Su-metal, and Moa Kikuchi as Moa-Metal
© Copyright Stewart Marsden

On the 2nd of July Babymetal was playing The Brixton Academy. It was my birthday, I was going!

Before I had heard Babymetal some time ago, a friend saw them live. He was very excited to tell me about what might happen if you put a video game version of Pantera in a blender with Kylie Minogue, and Cliff Richard and then had 3 young Japanese J-pop girls drink it. He tried desperately to convince me to look them up, naturally I thought he had been out in the sun too long and should probably best go to lay down somewhere.

I thought nothing more of my friend’s musical recommendation.

Sometime later I was sat at another friend’s house on a weekend afternoon drinking beer and wine getting slowly sloshed and enjoying on TV the top metal 100 countdown. To our surprise 3 young J-pop girls came on dancing like Kylie Minogue to video game Panetra style riffs with vocals harmonies as catchy as a Cliff classic; Megitsune, a few tracks later they were on again, this time it was Karate; “this must be what my mate was talking about” I thought – Jeff, as it turned out was right! Babymetal are Brilliant.

Fresh from their fantastic festival performance at Glastonbury that I watched on the BBC, Babymetal had drawn a crowd that formed queue for their one-off London headliner that encircled The Brixton Academy; and then some. I had to wrestle my way past this and the bootleg T-shirt sales folk to the side entrance line.

Once inside and paperwork done, I headed to the bar. I had been in the Bar at The Brixton Academy many times before but this time it was very different. The emo, cosplayer, casual fan, old school biker metal head, 60 something year old rockers and techno kids mingled together, drank and were merry. I was first made welcome by a yellow octopus while waiting to be served. It felt like Christmas Haruki-ya’s bar from Akira. I drank my beer and silently observed the eclectic crowd intermingle with one another with a smile on my face wondering what Dostoevsky would have made of this sight.

Sleep Token Live at The Brixton Academy, 2 July 2019

First up on stage were Sleep Token, they are self-described, probably for the better as, a masked, anonymous collective of musicians; united by their worship of an ancient deity crudely dubbed “Sleep”’. They appeared as dark figures on a subtlety yet creatively illuminated stage. Their masks barely visible from under their dark hoods. The three static silhouetted backing singers near the rear of the stage could give stone statues a run for their money. Their sound consisted of eerie vocal echoes of seemingly electro-synth voices against a slow rhythmic dark moody ambient metal if there is such a thing. It wasn’t to my taste, and considering the upbeat vibe of the headline act, they were rather out of place.

But there were a lot of fans in the audience who were enjoying the low guitar tones and deep vocals.

Amaranthe Live at The Brixton Academy, 2 July 2019

Next up on stage were the Scandinavian rockers Amaranthe. They were as different to the opening act as you could possibly get. A hair metal, Eurovision friendly, Rock band. They were great fun. The three vocalists each brought their own style to the stage; they engaged with the crowd and got the place alive. The trio perform superbly with their rock-steady rhythm section giving the academy a taste of what they can deliver. I think they were cut short and I personally would have loved them to have had a longer set.

Those Nordics know what rock really is and were not afraid to swing their hair.

The lights go down, and the Academy is dark, there is some hustle on stage as it’s prepared for the headline act. Babymetal’s logo is projected onto the back wall and the excitement becomes electric. People were going crazy before the girls were even on stage.

The Brixton academy has hosted many bands over the years, but on this night, make no mistake about it, Brixton belongs to Babymetal.

They open with Megitsune, those heavy Pantera style rhythms, Kylie dancing and contagious Cliff harmonies delivered in J-pop. The entire down stairs turns into one giant mosh pit and stayed that way until almost the end.