Explosive Night at The Dome: Militarie Gun and Spiritual Cramp Rock Tufnell Park

8 December 2023 rocknews

We thought we were in for a quiet night at the Dome in Tufnell Park, as the audience was pretty sparse when we arrived. That soon changed, however as both Militarie Gun and support act Spiritual Cramp packed the venue with an audience who were ready to jump, mosh and stage dive their way through the night.

Spiritual Cramp

Spiritual Cramp – named after the Christian Death song – brought some fierce energy to the stage. Frontman Michael Bingham prowled, kicked and leapt around during the set, and seemed to be channeling everyone from Iggy Pop to Elvis via Sid Vicious.

Their music is loud, raw and aggressive, but with some softer moments, and the stage presence is punctuated by the percussive beats and tambourine of the Bez-like Jose-Luna Gonzalez. The 12 song set drew heavily from this year’s self-titled album, with five songs getting the live treatment. Standouts for us were ‘Better Off This Way’ and ‘Talking on the Internet’.

This California band love the UK – as Bingham enthusiastically told the crowd – and we’re sure they will return soon in a headline capacity.

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Militarie Gun

The Dome was heaving as fellow Californians Militarie Gun took to the stage. Vocalist Ian Shelton immediately encouraged the crowd to move forwards towards the stage – something that, given the amount of people there, seemed impossible and yet move forward they did. The atmosphere was electric as soon as they launched into opener ‘Will Logic’, the first of ten tracks from their one full length album ‘Life Under the Gun’. This was followed by ‘Let Me Be Normal’ and a cover of Dazy’s ‘Pressure Cooker’.

A small mosh pit got the crowd moving, and signalled the start of plenty of stage diving, which only intensified the band’s performance.

The dual guitars of William Acuña and Nick Cogan played off each other brilliantly while bassist Waylon Trim and drummer Vince Nguyen locked in a solid rhythm section.

The rest of the set was made up of numbers from EPs ‘My Life is Over’ and 2021s ‘All Roads Lead to the Gun’, with highlights being ‘Don’t Pick Up the Phone’, ‘Let Me Be Normal’ and ‘Life in Decline’.

The best bit of the night? Seeing Ian Shelton’s mum watching and rocking out at the side of the stage!!

It’s hard to believe that a band who were formed only three years ago and during the COVID lockdown can blast through a 21 song set and still have plenty in reserve. This is a band going places if the scenes in Tufnell Park are anything to go by!

Militarie Gun tour the UK and Ireland until 10th December and embark on a tour of the USA in the New Year.