A View From The Back Of The Room: Ithaca (Live Review By GC)

Ithaca & Pupil Slicer, Boston Music Rooms, London, 4 August 2022

Walking into the venue you can feel a sense of anticipation that tonight is going to be a good night with 2 of the UK’s leading lights in the heavy music scene playing to a crowd ready to forget the day-to-day shit that engulfs this country and get lost in the music.

Pupil Slicer (6), like their chaotic and uncontrollable music are a bit up and down tonight the vocals tend to get a bit lost in the mix and some sound demons really seem to affect how they came over to the crowd and it really took them until the last 2 songs of their set to really hit the mark and hit a groove but when they do they are unhinged and glorious and pull it out of the bag I am sure there will be better nights for them but it was a decent showing overall!

Then, at 9:30 pm its the calm before the storm! Ithaca (9) then walk onto the stage and tell us there ‘’back to make some mother fucking noise’’ and they then proceed to unleash an almighty set of cathartic brilliance which you won’t see in venues of this size for very much longer! They kick it all off with the furious and punishing In The Way and then lead straight into The Future Says Thank You that sounds huge tonight and is almost spat at the crowd with anger and rage coursing through every note.

Following on from this we are treated to The Language Of Injury which fits perfectly into the groove and they then flit seamlessly into recent single and certified banger Camera Eats First which really gets everyone in the pit going wild! Fluorescent is next up, and here it feels like Ithaca and the audience make are really making a genuine connection but unfortunately some of the clean vocals get lost in the mix which is a real shame as its takes away from the genuine beauty on offer but this is a small issue in an otherwise great set so far. 

Now after the slight and only dip in pace we are faced head on with a genuine monster of a song in They Fear Us and of course this is lapped up by everyone and the place absolutely explodes, and it just keeps building towards the end when we get THAT chorus, and it is an utter delight to see the room go fucking mental and seems to spur the band on even more! Spectacular! Where do we go after that? Well, we get straight into an old classic Youth Vs Wisdom and then of course comes their 100% gold classic Impulse Crush which closes the set in an absolute magnificent blur of crushing riffs, massive vocals, and a heaving pit and with that they are gone! No encore, no waiting around, just gone!

You just know that Ithaca know they have played a blinder tonight, not really putting a foot wrong and their set was a good mix of new and old and looking around the room at all the satisfied and elated faces, it is clear to see everyone agrees.