Never Mind The Bollocks, The Haunt Inflame Anarchy in the U.K.

The Haunt performed at The Underworld
in London on June 19, 2024

It was a party just for the hell of it.

Mere steps from the bustle of Camden High St is a stairwell that descends into The Underworld. It’s a little like hell, a cavern for the curious, a bastion for the adventurous, for the misfits ready to dance, anxious to scream and shout their frustrations out.

With a long, storied history that has seen the likes of Bring Me The Horizon, Fall Out Boy, Black Veil Brides, Avenged Sevenfold, Bad Religion, Soundgarden, Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins, Twenty One Pilots, Queens of the Stone Age, Enter Shikari, Ghost, and Foo Fighters grace its stage, it was time for another pair of octane-draped cavalcades to etch their names in its hallowed namesake.

Fresh off the Rock For People Fest in the Czech Republic, South Florida rockers The Haunt, led by the charismatic duo, the spellbinding vocalist Anastasia Haunt and her riff-wielding, vibe-setting older brother Maxamillion, blasted onto the stage with “Bad Omen,” an as-yet-unreleased concussion of exaltation. It was a powerful beginning to their first London show in five years, a continuation of bedlam from when the group razed the dead while on tour with Palaye Royale.

A cauldron of pent-up rage was on full display as The Haunt showcased heavier fare like “New Addiction,” “Going Under,” and “Overdose,” commanding the fashion-forward audience like arena rockers. It was a tight, taut, well-oiled machine brimming at the seams. It was pure chaos in the best possible sense.

The quartet, which included drummer Joey Castro and bassist Salem Vex, was touring the United Kingdom and Europe as direct support for Texas-based alternative electronic band Missio, their Nettwerk labelmates. The two groups recently collaborated on the 90s-tinged earworm anthem “Can People Really Change?”

Song after song, chorus after chorus, The Haunt led the parade, energy coursing from the stage as fans reciprocated, upping the ante in every way. From a bone-rattling rendition of “Hook, Line & Sinker” from beloved UK power duo Royal Blood to a fist-pumping conniption during “I’m Not Yours” to Anastasia’s signature final sustained acapella at the climax of “Wish You Stayed,” The Haunt slayed.

As the entourage left at half past midnight to make it to a ferry en route to a scheduled 4 am border crossing, the sounds of silence rifled through the streets of London, but the sound of glory was pulsing like a blood-red heart. Not for the faint of faith nor the morally incompetent, the uninitiated were no longer dead on arrival, they were emboldened, enlivened, they had been baptized, the social intercourse had begun, The Haunt had brought us the horizon.

Setlist:

Bad Omen
Morally Incompetent
Blood Red Heart
Little Like Hell
I’m Not Yours
Overdose
Hook, Line & Sinker (Royal Blood cover)
New Addiction
Going Under
Wish You Stayed