Brum Shots

It’s truly the night for the emos. Hot Mulligam are here. A sea of black t-shirts, vans and tattoos decks out the sold out o2 Institute, ready for a Wednesday night to remember. Oversize and Delta Sleep have set the scene perfectly, showing off what the Brits have to offer in their up-and-coming talent department, but now it’s time for a headline set from Michigan’s Hot Mulligan.

While many concerts start with a bang, the slower paced Moving To Bed Bug Island proves an equally effective choice, quietly building the tension over a mounting 3 minutes. Then bang. The climax. And A Big Load immediately gets the room moving. And I mean literally – it’s a pretty old venue and you can feel the floor shaking. Maybe that’s something that needs to be looked into by a qualified structural engineer, or maybe this is just the energy Hot Mulligam have brought tonight.

‘If you blow your voice out, that’s a pretty good reason not to go to work later,’ vocalist Nathan “Tades” Sanville suggests. When he’s not encouraging abuse of the balcony dwellers, we receive an in depth history of Hot Mulligan through a varied setlist. Are they the only band who still bother with the weirdly long song titles? Where Panic! At The Disco and Fall Out Boy used to lead the charge, now we have John “The Rock” Cena, Can You Smell What the Undertaker and I Don’t Think It’s The Right Time For Emojis to hold the mantle.

Wickedly catchy tracks like Featuring Mark Hopus and Drink Milk And Run almost dare you not to sing along. And by the time we reach Shhhh! Golf Is On you can almost feel the ache of the security staff’s arms as they scoop another flailing limbed crowd surfer from the front lines of the pit.

Guitarist and vocalist Chris Freeman uses Sanville’s absence while he apparently throws up as a chance to briefly take centre stage in the encore before the set concludes with BCKYRD and *Equip Singlasses.* The euphoric singalong session had to end at some point, and this isn’t a bad way to do so.