The Boxer Rebellion

The way frontman, Nathan Nicholson strolls around the stage you’d think he owned the place. Jesting with the Daily Mail reading Lenny Kravitz fans (it’s only a support show, sadly), the wiry American jests: ‘We were playing the Barfly last week’.

Indeed. But where most newly signed indie bands would implode with fear at a nearly-full arena while watching their dubious indie-jibe fall on its media-hyped arse, The Boxer Rebellion’s music takes on other-wordly new bounds amid Wembley’s delay-inducing acoustics. They certainly fulfil every bombastic metaphor I’ve ever thrown at them.

And they’ve certainly found their niche with the likes of ‘Never Knowing How Or Why’. Coupling Nicholson’s spacey piano playing with Todd Howe’s harpooning, Interpol-raping guitars, the simmering, dark, melting melodies transcend into whirling torrents of bass-led brilliance. Adam Harrison’s bass is also the lead guitar on ‘The Rescue’ whose rhythmic-perfection leaves even the most middle-roaded music fan aghast at its beauty.

Despite how technical they are, the band play it shy and reservedly cool. It’s this natural showmanship that makes it so watchable along with their ability to down the drum fills of mass destruction that make up ‘The Opening’ and make riff-driven road crash soundtracks like ‘Watermelon’ _or stadium stompers like _‘Code Red’. It’s the kind of shape-shifting experience small venues cannot deliver through their modest PAs, with the washy reverb of Wembley delivering the full majesty of their heartbreaking soundtracks.

And for every nothing toilet band promoting themselves as the greatest songwriter of their age, there’s this quiet realisation brewing among every person that sees The Boxer Rebellion live that this really is what the world has been waiting for.

Listen to live tracks from their London Calling festival show here.