The Chats live at NX review: perfect pub punk

The Chats were exactly the pub punk band you want them to be on their recent visit to Newcastle.

Genevieve Nice
1st January 2025
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
The set started with warm up from Rifle, a London based punk band that immediately ignited the crowd into a mosh pit with their aggressive sound and energetic spirit. Their frontman/vocalist jumped around the stage commanding the attention of the room and stirred the audience more and more with his crowd engagement.

Next was the Prize. This second act was a change in tone from Rifle which was more similar to what you would typically expect as a warm up to the Chats. Despite their heavier sound in recordings, in person they came across more like a soft rock band. This was possible due to being sandwiched between high energy punk and higher energy punk. Their outfits and haircuts finished off the appearance that they had stepped straight out of the 70s or 80s. Their songs added an interesting variation, however, the crowd seemed uninterested in the change in tone and continued their moshing. 

After two and a half hours of warm ups and the classic gig waiting around time, the Chats enter the stage to a sea of concertgoers buzzing in anticipation for the main event. Their sound is powerful, rough and relentlessly lively. There is minimal crowd interaction until towards the end where the frontman made blunt, entertaining quips and self-deprecating jokes. This may have mattered if the entire floor area had not already been brazenly jumping and dancing around by the first chord, the sort of audience that would push you down and pull you back up again - otherwise known as exactly what you want from a punk gig. 

Towards the end of the evening the similarities between their songs felt more notable and the tunes felt as if they could have merged into one. Despite this every song lit up with masses of voices screaming the words back at them and not a single person appeared to leave underwhelmed or disappointed, apart from the girl who collected her flattened glasses as the dancing legs exited the building. 

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