It’s not often you can go to a punk gig and expect to begin with 5 minutes of yoga and meditation. The crowd were invited to either join or observe while Bob Vylan unapologetically stretched his way across the stage before opening the set with We Live Here. Unapologetic is probably the best way to describe this whole gig which was full of politically motivated lyricism and speeches along with a fair amount of crowd participation and chatter. There was also a competition set out by Bob himself to “touch home base”, encouraging crowd surfers to try and dodge security and make it onto the stage to touch one if the 3 hard cases with the artist’s name on them. There was one successful participant. After that invitation, the venue was a stream of bodies crowd surfing their way to the front to the sound of Vylan’s commanding voice. The mosh pit going strong by the second song. Everything kicked off the way it would continue for the rest of the chaos-filled night of good music and good company.
Bob Vylan is nothing if not a divisive musician with a voice of conviction for everything he believes and playing a sold-out show in Bristol was the perfect fuel for many a political speech from both the performer himself and audience members. Bob himself even described the show as
“equal parts music and chatter”. At one point, a Palestinian flag was brought on stage by a crowd surfer and proudly displayed for the rest of the set, after a pause in the set to voice the band’s thoughts on the current situation.
There were some well-known songs in the set, including Pretty Songs which is a personal favourite of mine, as well as a couple of unreleased tracks from the upcoming album. The show came to its conclusion with pyrotechnics and the same amount of energy as when it began. The yoga at the beginning seemed like more and more of a good idea as sweat dripped and muscles ached from constant moving. For the second time that night, Bob launched himself into the crowd to complete his set; the ultimate connection to his audience.
@anna.h_photos
Role: Photographer/ Journalist
Available for: Gig and press phototography, album shoots, music videos, tour coverage
Qualification: 1st class BA photojournalism degree
First attended gig: First ticketed gig I remember is Newton Faulkner but there was plenty of live music that I saw growing up in the folk scene in Cornwall
First gig shot: Rattler Fest for all three days
Dream gig: It's too hard to pick just one, and i'm lucky enough to have been able to shoot some of my bucket list bands already, so top 3 would have to be Frank Turner, The Hives, and Twenty One Pilots
