We were in Camden for the greatest new heavy rock band in the world on the 17th of February.
We were fortunate enough to have grabbed a ticket for one of the essential music events of 2026! Camden Underworld has a capacity of about 500 and everyone present knew this was likely to go down as a historic gig, akin to catching Nirvana on their initial 1989 UK tour. Texan band Die Spitz have been making waves for several years now, putting a pick and mix of incredible genre sounds together into thrilling track after thrilling track. A bit grunge, a bit heavy rock, a bit punk, a pinch of metal. It all goes together into some incredible heavy riffing and stunning vocal delivery.
Aerial Salad
The support band tonight describe themselves as post-punk meets Madchester. They were new to us, but wow did they bring the energy! The trio all came on pulling their best boy band poses and instantly put the audience at ease with their sense of humour. They already have a couple of albums under their belt.
Their live show is absolutely frenetic. They dropped the hammer from the start and kept the dial in the red zone for most of the set.
Die Spitz
The sense of anticipation is so sharp before they come on stage that, had there been a gas leak, half of Camden would have gone up in the blast.
Eleanor Livingston has a slightly wild look in her eye. “We don’t normally drink before shows.” Adopting her best Dick Van Dyke cockney accent, i.e. fairly terrible, “When in Luuundan town, you gotta have a bunch of good old pints!” Strap yourselves in people!
The high drama riffage of ‘I Hate When Girls Die” opens proceedings. Ava Schrobilgen is all business on guitar. Bassist Kate Halter looks more like a refugee from The Last Dinner Party. She forms a brutal rhythm section with drummer Chloe de St. Aubin, except for a brief stint where Ava and Chloe swap instruments. The shifting nature of who leads the vocals is one of the many impressive features that give real range to their sound.
It all builds in intensity as the awesome song titles pile up, including ‘Monkey Song,’ ‘American Porn,’ and ‘My Hot piss.’ This band is fearless. Livingston is out into the crowd early on. Then later, she dives in from the stage and the front row that side are scrabbling to catch her and keep her up for the crowd surf whilst still playing guitar. Halter follows suit soon after. She saunters to the middle, stands on a monitor, pivots to face backwards and falls back without giving any warning. In the European leg of their tour, they were diving from balcony lighting rigs without a second thought.
‘Punishers’ has an instant classic feel, Pixies, Smashing Pumpkins and Foo Fighters all rolled into one. We then slink into the Nirvana-ish grunge of ‘Groping Dogs Gushing Blood.’ They have studied all the greats, but they intensely own the output. These are not copies, they are intricate but brutal works of art from a band that has an utter ferocity of purpose.
‘Pop Punk Anthem’ hits with the intensity of a slow-motion train crash. Livingston is back out in the crowd and this time standing up on shoulders. Microphone in one hand, can of beer in the other. She rides the audience back to the stage. She is marshalling a pit and calling forth carnage. This is not a band you refuse lightly. They take us all the way back to their 2022 EP for ‘Evangeline’ to finish the main set.
As they come back out for the encore, they call forth all the women in the venue to come down to the front and join them. Our motley collection of Six Music Dad’s on the front row happily abandon position and move back four rows. We would have gone back further if anyone else had wanted to come more forward. And what an encore we get. ‘RIDING WITH MY GIRLS’ demonstrates just how far their songwriting has come over the last four years. Camden Underworld is in danger of lifting off the roof and collapsing the floor of the brilliant World’s End pub above it. THIS IS HISTORY HAPPENING.
‘Hair of Dog’ continues the momentum, 500 people are all bouncing in time and rocking out. There is no time to surrender though, as the juggernaut ‘Throw Yourself To The Sword’ unfurls its crushingly heavy chorus. Earlier on Livingston discussed filming the video, describing herself as ‘A massive nerd.’ I think we can safely say no nerds have ever rocked as hard as this bunch do. They stick around to soak up the adulation, to take in the enormity of what just happened. Everybody is floored. They will never play a London venue this size again. They are back in June at the three times bigger 1,500 capacity Electric Ballroom just up the road. IT WILL BE EPIC.
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