Missives From The Mosh Pit Edge

Camden Underworld, Leipzig Hellraiser’s creepy English cousin. Both evoke suspicion, curiosity and fear. Enter at your peril, for demons await and you may never return. Hardly dancing along with a happy refrain to the show tonight, my imagination riots with images of menace and doom. And it’s London, too cool for school, meh 😳.

Leaving work at 8.30pm, I get on train for four minutes, tube for thirty, and good evening Camden Underworld. Warily I descend a flight of dark, narrow stairs into the flaming bowels of hell before emerging into a bright, friendly, welcoming bar area. Yes, I know 😄.

I make my way through the bar and stand, amazed and delighted at the sight before me. The venue is like a pub, the stage well under a metre in height, and small. There’s no barrier and, for the moment, the folks in the audience are dotted around with plenty of space inbetween. I hesitate not one second, I barely even breathe as I scan the room and clearly see my favourite spot. Left of centre, down the front. Leaning along the stage are a few ladies, considerably shorter than me. Behind them, a couple of men, considerably taller but who are holding cameras. Official photographers, unable to stand in front of the non-existent barrier, will take shots from the crowd and leave after the first few songs. I decide to sacrifice the initial view of the band for a clear vista fifteen minutes into the show.

More and more people push into the hall. This is going to be exciting, special; the crowd senses it. There is no room for the PAIN light show, no room for the stage show.  This is a band pared back to the basics, no bells and whistles, dancing girls or fireworks; just four men on a stage armed only with their instruments, talent, fantastic songs and a passion for their craft.

It’s already getting hot as the intro starts, Billy Idol, Rebel Yell. The audience sings along with the homeboy, they know all the words and the chorus is a rousing flashback to our youth in the 80s. ‘In the midnight hour she cried more, more, more; with a rebel yell she cried more, more, more; in the midnight hour, babe, more, more, more; with a rebel yell, more, more, more, more, more, more….’ It’s grrrreat!

There’s an agonising few seconds’ wait before the band appear from the darkness and instantly command the stage, get down to business and thrash out the first song. I’m gobsmacked and overjoyed to be only a couple of feet away from them. They are so close! ‘How can this be?’, I ponder briefly, before conscious thought vapourises as the photographers click, the temperature soars, the crowd goes nuts and the band thunder on.

Three or four songs in, the photographers leave their spot and the coast is cleared to reveal an uninterrupted view of the stage. This, combined with a band relying solely on their music to entertain and astound, is undoubtably the best moment of the shows so far. It is quite magical; it gets hotter and hotter, the air gets thicker and it feels like everyone there is part of the show. There’s no real distinction between those onstage and those in the audience, we’re all just THERE, consumed in a raging maelstrom of sound, heat, sweat and the absolute pleasure of an utterly perfect moment in time.

Later, a considerate and kind barman, not permitted to sell drinks after the show, gives me a tall glass of cool water before I leave the Underworld for the London streets above. The cold night air is a welcome relief from the stifling heat inside the venue and I float home on a cloud of ecstasy. How, on this earth, will I sleep tonight?

Home. Water. Instagram. BBC News. BBC Weather. YouTube. Oh, God, not YouTube at this hour. Wide awake. 3am. Phone out, watch clip taken at show but deleted by mistake in a hurry. It appears to be, actually, very good. Super footage of Mr Andersson close up, bashing out a tune, metal-saluting the air THEN pan to Mr Tägtgren headbanging, flicking hair back, shooting a Metal Glare directly at me. EEEEK! Lucky I didn’t notice it at the time. I would have dropped my phone and scarpered!

🎸 Now your turn. YouTube ‘Pain LIVE at Camden Underworld 24.10.2016’ for the first 46 minutes of the show, oh, wow! Wonderful! Watch it on your phone for the best picture and if you look closely around 23.37 you’ll see the Metal Glare for yourself😱.