Something the Glasgow and London music scenes have in common is a DIY, punk rock spirit, and at The Garage in London on Friday 6th December, the two scenes were combined with a headline show from Glaswegian band Dead Pony. We’re here tonight to celebrate their debut album, “Ignore This”, their almost 50-minute long debut record, released in April of this year.

The show starts with opening sets by fellow Glaswegian punk rock bands SOAPBOX and Gallus, who fill the room with an electric punk energy, with the lead singer of SOAPBOX both berating the price of a pint at the venue (an extortionate £7, by the way), and jumping into the crowd and encouraging mosh pits to warm the crowd up for the main set. Their energy they bring to The Garage is tangible; they get the blood pumping, sweat dripping and hearts racing.

When Dead Pony take to the stage, they walk on with self-assured swagger, accompanied by a rock version of “Where’s Your Head At?”. We kick the show off with a bang with the title track from their debut album, “Ignore This”, with lead singer Anna Shields bringing an electric energy to the stage, making full use of the space on stage. She’s a born front woman, with a punk edge like Kathleen Hanna or Hayley Williams – she’s absolutely captivating to watch. Next up on the set list is ‘MK Nothing’ and ‘Bullet Farm’, which gets the crowd head banging like their lives depend on it. The moshers in the audience are eager to start as they mean to go on, their passion for the band’s music palpable as they pull each other into the pit, encouraging those standing at the sides of the room to get stuck in with them.

We spiral through some of the best songs on their album, including “AWOL”, “About Love” and “I Might Die”, and the rowdy nature of the audience builds and thrives on the excitement of the band – it’s hard to know who’s enjoying the show more, Dead Pony themselves or the crowd. The self-proclaimed “reprobates from Glasgow” are thriving, clearly in their element, interacting with each other throughout each song. They’re tightly in sync with each other, with guitarist Blair Crichton, bassist Liam Adams and drummer Euan Lyons all taking cues from lead singer Shields.

Dead Pony are big on crowd participation. Half way through the set, they invited two fans up on stage and performed the Macarena with them. The set list focused primarily on the album, and the band perform “Bad Girlfriend”, “X-Rated” and “Rainbows” at the mid-way point. The band are unapologetically adrenaline-fuelled, and are clearly thrilled to be playing their largest London show to date. Shields mentions her home city of Glasgow multiple times throughout the show, and gives the Scots in the crowd a special shout out. The band are as hyped as the audience, and as the energy reaches a high, Shields shouts “This is one of the best shows we’ve played in our entire lives!” 

“This is one of the best shows we’ve played in our entire lives!” 

We continue on, ears pounding, and arrive at “Zero” and “23, Never Me”, which is their biggest song to date. This song means so much to the band (it currently has 2.6 million streams on Spotify alone) and Shields has its title tattooed on her arm; the crowd go crazy, head banging like their lives depend on it. Next up is their newest track released in November, “Everything Burns“, goes down a treat, as it’s the first time everyone in the crowd has heard it live.

For the second to last song of the night, we’re treated to the lead singers of SOAPBOX and Gallus, Tom and Barry, joining the Dead pony on stage for a cover of Limp Bizkit’s “Break Stuff”. The room is absolutely electric, a swirling mosh pit forming in the middle only breaking up to crowd surf Tom and Barry, as well as fans in the audience. Multiple people go sailing over other people’s heads, and it’s easy to get lost in the eddy of the pit.

After “Break Stuff” finishes (judging by the reception it got, the bands need to release their joint cover on Spotify), there’s only one more song to go. As soon as they start their final song of the night, “MANA”, the crowd work their way into a frenzy, the sounds of singing almost drowning out the band. Some of the crowd may go home a little bruised after tonight’s show, but they’ll be back for the next Dead Pony show – something tells us that this is only the beginning for the band.

SETLIST

Ignore This
MK Nothing
Bullet Farm
AWOL
About Love
I Might Die
Bad Girlfriend
X-Rated
Rainbows
Zero
23, Never Me
Everything Burns
Cobra
Break Stuff (Limp Bizkit cover, performed with Barry of Gallus and Tom of SOAPBOX)
MANA