LIVE FROM THE PIT: Touche Amore, Trauma Ray and Chalk Hands

After the release of their most recent album, Spiral in a Straight Line, Touché Amoré announced a 37-day EU and UK tour, supported by Trauma Ray for the whole thing. This is already fresh off the heels of a 21-day USA tour at the end of last year, an insight into this band’s incredible work ethic. Of course, there’s still a few noticeable differences here and there, for example, drummer Elliott Babin has recently become a father, and as a result could not come on this tour, according to frontman Jeremy Bolm before thanking his temporary replacement, Sam, for filling in. There’s a few other surprises on the way too, with bands Chalk Hands performing in support for Touché Amoré as well as Trauma Ray at Manchester’s Gorilla venue.

Brighton’s own Chalk Hands were up only half an hour after doors opened, to a fairly quiet crowd - the band were surprised people had even shown up to see them at half past 6 in the evening - but that didn’t stop them from making an impression. After a short guitar drone, they launched into their first song, each hit on the drums reverberating through the bones of anyone in attendance. The two guitarists and bass player each had vocal parts at various points - the music itself was already extremely dynamic but these switches throughout songs adds to the effect, it’s exciting and keeps the audience on their toes. Between the songs, their frontman urged the audience to come closer to the stage as “we want to be able to smell you all” before playing some as of yet unreleased songs for an upcoming album, which they announced they were recording nearby. Their performances were tight and engaging the whole way through, and prove themselves to be an exciting live act.

After a short half-hour break, Trauma Ray walked onstage, and immediately swung into action, blasting the audience with this tidal wave of distortion. The Texas shoegaze group have been with Touché Amoré for the whole European leg of the tour, and it certainly shows. Their debut album Chameleon released last October, but their confidence shone through as they managed to put together a decisive set of songs. It was half an hour of noisy, distorted walls of sound, with vocalist Uriel Avila’s voice floating above the instrumentation with a Chino Moreno-esque performance. At this point, the crowd was building in numbers, swaying back and forth. The music was extremely heavy and the band didn’t let up at all, but there was still this dream-like quality to it that made them an absolute joy to see live - before walking off to 4 Non-Blondes’ “What’s Up”

Before top-of-the-ticket group Touché Amoré had even set foot on the stage, fans were having a great time, singing along to The Beatles’ “Hey Jude” and Aerosmith’s “Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing” playing through the speakers. But upon the band’s arrival onstage, they broke out into lead single off their most recent album Spiral in a Straight Line - “Nobody’s”. Across the course of the set, frontman Jeremy Bolm had a huge grin on his face, clearly enjoying the performance and the crowd interaction. Crowdsurfers were absolutely everywhere, every minute a new audience member would manage to make their way onto the stage then jump back into the crowd. The energy in the venue was electric and you could even feel it from the back of the room, as communal of an experience as any punk-adjacent show should feel.

Despite the tour existing to promote their new album, the setlist was fairly balanced, performing a handful of songs off of almost every album, before closing with fan-favourite “Flowers and You” from 2016’s Stage Four. This was, of course, before coming back on stage for one more song, prompted by the audience chanting “Oh Touché Amoré” to the familiar tune of “Seven Nation Army”. The very last song they chose to perform was “Limelight”, lead single from 2020’s Lament, bringing Trauma Ray’s Uriel Avila back onstage for backing vocals towards the end - a great surprise to end a fantastic night of music.

Words: Jake Leonard

Photos: Ely King