Wait, is that the SpongeBob theme? Mushroomhead live at O2 Academy Islington, London

For the series of “never book a gig on a Monday”, we’re back with another show that didn’t sell out. Filling half a room this time is Mushroomhead, in London for their 2026 European/UK tour, and supported by Helgrind. The date landed the day after Bloodstock’s final day, so management clearly knew this was going to be a light one.

Despite that, the show felt tight, as if no one had ever performed in that venue before, allowing chances for strangers to connect with each other and share some great music. I even met a father and daughter there for her very first show. It was remarkable and, in my opinion, a good choice for a new generation starting out in the metal scene. I put it back to you: if you were a kid again, what’s the first band you’d want to see live?

Helgrind

Helgrind is a London thrash band, formed in 2000. The small stage didn’t do them any favours: with the headliner’s set-up already in place, they were confined to a few square feet, and their stage presence suffered for it. The frontman was also odd up there, trying to move around the other band members without looking aloof, and somehow he managed it.

It was hard to judge them properly, though, because the volume was extreme. The intro track alone made everyone jump. I struggled to pick out the individual instruments, and the vocals sat noticeably below them in the mix.

That said, I enjoyed the charisma of every member on stage, which made the whole thing feel more like a gathering of friends than a live show, limited space and all. They closed with a cover of the Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop”, which tells you something about the room they were playing to.

Photo: Peterson Marti.

Mushroomhead

1. Eye to Eye
2. A Requiem for Tomorrow
3. Fall in Line
4. Our Apologies
5. Qwerty
6. Sun Doesn’t Rise
7. Solitaire/Unravelling
8. The Heresy
9. Madness Within
10. Seen It All
11. Prepackaged
12. When Doves Cry / Among the Crows
13. 12 Hundred
14. Born of Desire / War Pigs

As the technicians covered the monitors to protect them from water damage, we braced ourselves for what was coming. Seventy minutes, fourteen songs, and a running order that leaned hard on the back catalogue.

The intro tape was the SpongeBob theme, which I had to sing along to, of course! Then “Eye To Eye” opened the night properly, and my eyes popped as the drummers started hitting the water, and it went everywhere, catching the stage lights as it flew. We didn’t get soaked, but the poor crew had to clean it all up afterwards.

What I hadn’t clocked at the time is that “Eye To Eye” also opens “Call the Devil”, the record they put out in August 2024. Not being familiar with their latest material, I only worked out afterwards that “Fall in Line” and “Prepackaged” came from the very first album too. From that point the set worked backwards.

They moved early into “A Requiem for Tomorrow” and “Our Apologies” before dropping into the “XIII”-era run of “Qwerty” and “Sun Doesn’t Rise”, where of course a veteran like me had to go all in.

It was my first time seeing them, and I had no expectations, since I didn’t want to spoil anything before the show. With three vocalists on a stage the size of Islington’s, there wasn’t much room, which is probably why they kept jumping off it. No, just kidding; apparently that was their signature. Them going into the crowd, or singing from someone else’s shoulders, was the showstopper for me. Jackie LaPonza did the same on the songs she took part in, and at one point she was filming the crowd from the stage, so I’ll most probably be in that footage somewhere.

In my honest opinion, a show of this calibre deserved a bigger venue, and ideally a better day of the week than the one right after a festival. I enjoyed every minute of it. Seeing so many generations in one room is a pleasure to watch, and a good sign for what’s coming.

Photo: Peterson Marti.