The Californian pop punks headline a beast of a bill in London!
Rebellion Festival 2026 is almost upon us – check out our coverage over the weekend! – but yours truly can’t make it this year. What I can do, however, is enjoy the various warm-up gigs being played in the London area, and this evening’s is among the most enticing of those on offer. It’s heartening to see (a) a literature stall advocating for trans rights, veganism, anti-racism and other highly worthy causes, and (b) that each band playing tonight features at least one female-identifying person. Why can’t more gigs be like this?
We’re delighted to see Old Chase’s singer/guitarist sporting a ‘Short Music For Short People’ t-shirt; we were huge fans of the semi-legendary Fat Wreck Chords compilation back in the day, so a cover of the opening track ‘Short Attention Span’ is also a welcome bonus. A fair few of their own songs wouldn’t sound out of place in that era, too; zippy pop-punk with a very British self-deprecating sense of humour, and the triple vocal attack on ‘Don’t Lie Awake’ really hits the spot. Clearly stoked that so many people are here at this early hour, they rip through their set with enthusiasm to burn, and provide a great start to the evening.
The Menstrual Cramps seem to get tighter and just generally more awe-inspiring every time we see them. If the riffs and grooves of the likes of ‘Body Politics’ and ‘Antagonistic’ don’t get you moving tonight, then we truly feel for you, and vocalist Emilia’s semi-spoken style is delivered with even more urgency than on record. It’s great to see so many people singing along, and listening intently as the band explain the background to their songs. Combining a fiercely politically and socially aware outlook with the musical equivalent of a sawn-off shotgun, trust us when we say that you really need to hear this band, and they give the headliners quite the run for their money.
A tough act to follow, for sure, but Bad Cop Bad Cop still manage to (narrowly) snatch the gold. There must be something in our collective eye when lead singer/guitarist Stacey Dee dedicates ‘Victoria’ to those whom we’ve lost to suicide, and their righteous anger towards a certain very powerful orange-faced buffoon on ‘Pursuit Of Liberty’ reminds us that there’s a steely resolve and determination behind all those gloriously catchy pop-punk tunes.
With their obvious camaraderie and easy-going to-and-fro with the crowd, they come across as a gang in the best sense of the word; four outcasts who banded together to play music and ended up being the coolest folks in town. The highlights come thick and fast; ‘Strugglinh’ and ‘Simple Girl’ both delivered with extra shots of venom, the autobiographical ‘Straight Out Of Detox’ as painfully relatable as ever, and the all-conquering ‘Womanarchist’ whipping up the loudest crowd response (and craziest pit) of the night. They return for a brief encore, closing with a vitriolic ‘Nightmare’ and depart leaving us wanting about 10 songs more – as so many of the best bands do.
Cheers to Be Sharp Promotions for having us along for the ride, and for putting such a great bill together! Keep an eye out for future Be Sharp gigs via the link.
All Photos: ALEX GOOSE
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I spend my days teaching English to foreign students, and my evenings attending as many gigs as possible. Raised mainly on a diet of 90s third-wave punk, my tastes have grown to include just about anything from trad ska to thrash metal. The Ramones are my musical gods.
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