Just a week ago I was at the larger O2 Arena photographing Slipknot, but this show at Indigo at the O2 was to be a very different experience indeed. Firstly, it was a matinée show (due to the target audience being young children and their parents), and secondly because it involved not only dogs and a bear playing metal music, but also masked wrestlers.
There was a sizeable snaking crowd lined up outside the venue just before doors, which was great to see during the peculiar time between Christmas and New Year, and once inside the venue you could tell that this was going to be a special show – there was corpse-paint face-painting, inflatable aquatic mammals and beach balls piled up on stage…and a wrestling ring.
The way the show was organised was a multi-layered metal / wrestling sandwich, with Slay Duggee and Lucha Britannia alternating their performances, and Slay Duggee kicking things off. I honestly have loved this band from the first time I saw them at Bloodstock a few years ago, and always try to catch them when they play my hometown of London (despite always feeling a little odd to be one of the only adults there without a young child), so was thrilled when the goodest boys in metal let me have a photo for the show to capture the fun.
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Slay Duggee (in case you are unaware) are a five-piece metal band comprised of 4 dogs and a bear whose concerts give young children their first experience of live heavy metal music. They play covers of childrens’ hits such as “Baby Shark”, as well as songs of their own, including “I Am A Shape” which teaches kids about circle pits and other shapes. Their other songs probably mean more to those with young children, but can still be enjoyed by voluntarily childless millennial metalheads like myself. At various points in their set they were ed on stage by James Monteith (TesseracT), guitar sensation Rocco Biagioni, and a couple of very young performers whose names I didn’t catch. There was a face-painting competition sponsored by The Great Frog, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable time for people of all ages.
While I knew what to expect with Slay Duggee, I had never seen wrestling before, but Lucha Britannia put on a ridiculously entertaining show. They describe themselves as a “comedy cabaret wrestling show” and it was exactly that. The outfits were amazing, and he wrestling itself was equally impressive. The had the crowd cheering and booing, and were thoroughly entertaining.
Both acts sat very well together on the same bill, and I definitely think it is a fun few hours for kids and adults alike. I would highly recommend that you check out both Slay Duggee and Lucha Britannia if they are in a venue near you, and hopefully they will combine forces again in the future as that was a fantastic last show of the year.
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Photos by Katie Frost Photography
Slay Duggee: facebook | instagram | spotify| youtube
Lucha Britannia: official | facebook | instagram | youtube
