MOTHER VULTURE BRINGS THE ART OF CONTROLLED RUIN TO THE JOINERS

⭐⭐⭐⭐(4/5)

MOTHER VULTURE AT THE JOINERS, SOUTHAMPTON
PHOTOCREDIT: **CHARIS LYDIA BAGIOKI**

Mother Vulture’s recent run of shows has carried the quiet implication of a band accelerating faster than the infrastructure around them. With Strayers and Wrex in support, the bill leaned unapologetically into discomfort, grit, and intention.Opening the night, Strayers approached their set like a slow-turning engine. Their history is rooted in hard rock tradition, but live they operate with a modern sense of economy: riffs are thick but unfussy, rhythms grounded, vocals delivered with conviction rather than excess.The early crowd response was cautious but receptive. Strayers didn’t attempt to dominate the room; they conditioned it. Heads nodded before bodies moved. By the latter half of the set, the audience had settled into the groove, allowing the band’s steady momentum to do its work.

Where Strayers established footing, Wrex removed it entirely. The show opened with “We are Wrex and we are here to have a good time. For the next 40 minutes, you will forget all your worries and only feel the music”. And this is what happened. Wrex’s background as a project rather than a conventional band shows in how the set was structured: sharp edges, mechanical repetition, and an undercurrent of unease that never fully resolves. Live, this translated into a confrontational experience; whilst the set started on top of the stage, the band slowly moved down to the crowd. The guitarist stood in the middle of a circle pit, occasionally joining it, whilst the main vocalist went on top of a person’s shoulders to circle the venue. The chaos and energy of the set made the crowd reaction instant: everyone was primed to headbang, mosh, run around and generally go all out, as the movement became more erratic and the room grew louder (and hotter!).

When Mother Vulture took the stage, the night’s structure finally snapped into focus. Mother Vulture’s history has always orbited controlled volatility — heavy rock energy filtered through a sense of theatricality and emotional awareness that prevents it from collapsing into noise for noise’s sake.Live, that balance was exacting. Their set didn’t explode immediately, but when the riffs landed and the weight of the drums settled, the real impact came instantly. There was absolutely no restraint, as the band and the crowd let go. The setlist, consisting of banger after banger, meant that reaction was inevitable. The front rows responded first with movement and lyrics shouted back, whilst the rest of the room quickly followed in energy and intensity. Tracks like ‘Succotash’, ‘Rabbit’ and ‘Bedbugz’ had people screaming back the lyrics, whilst the slowdown of ‘Honey’, ‘Treadmill’ and the surge back up to ‘Masq’ and ‘Phoenix’ meant that the room (despite the breathing exercise intermission) released all energy in waves. Participation felt earned rather than forced, a result of provocation and a bloody great set!