All things bright and beautiful on All Hallows' Eve
Isaac and Laurie never back down from a challenge and they sure delivered a monumental conclusion to their 2024 tour. Having spent the summer appearing at festivals like Glastonbury, Truck and Boomtown, you’d be forgiven for thinking they might take it easy towards the back end of the year. They certainly did the opposite, with a 13-show tour over the course of 16 days. O2 academy Brixton was their final stop, a theatre of pure mayhem, and when they both pranced onto the stage, Isaac painted fully red with horns and Laurie in a green and red Mohican and a fabulous ruff, it suddenly dawned on a lot of the crowd that it was indeed, Halloween. Halloween is there for horrors and thrills; ghosts and monsters and Soft Play (FKA Slaves) are a duo of two monstrously energetic humans.
Hearing a gentle hymn of “All things bright and beautiful” followed by a cheeky “OOHH…”. This was how they kicked things off with 'All Things', their first track of the new album 'Heavy Jelly'. The second the drums kicked in and Laurie’s boisterous fingers caressed his guitar the crowd were whipped into a frenzy. Instantly, more and more people dashed from the back to join the pit, and the heat was eminently rising. This was followed by Mirror Muscles, one of their four singles from Heavy Jelly. A complete pisstake of modern gym culture, the chants of “I’ve been working on my mirror muscles” echoed through the auditorium and Isaac entered his most devilish form. He himself, a beacon of pure fitness and muscle, it only seemed fitting for him to be singing about jacked-up gym rats. More followed from H.J. and a few songs later, Act Violently was being belted by everyone. An extremely angry and passionate rant about the distaste towards e-scooters and their riders? Mosh pits followed, left, right and centre. As I’m sure many of those in attendance have been no stranger to a scooter cutting them off or nearly knocking them over, there was something beautiful about the shared loathing being turned into pure adrenaline.
Image copyright: Paul Grace
They whipped out plenty of the classics, including Spit It Out, Fuck the Hi-Hat and Sockets, old-school tunes from their days being known as ‘Slaves’. Having changed their name in 2022 to avoid obvious negative connotations, this brought some uproar amongst the more ‘sensitive’ of their fans who claimed they had ‘gone woke’ and that ‘Punk’s Dead’. So of course they had to write a song, mostly containing quotes from their socials of all the upset people, laying it on thick that, despite the title, Punk is well and truly alive. And the blood in everyone’s veins was well and truly pumping, arms flailing, voices dying and sweat dripping, all in front of a backdrop which was adorned with ‘SOFT C***S’.
As tradition now for these lads, they sent out an invitation for all the girls in the room to create their own mosh pit for ‘Girl Fight’. Channels and aisles were made and they surged their way to the middle, with Isaac personally pointing out every lad who dared try to sneak his way into their domain. The girls showed everyone how it’s done and being able to watch that from afar was a sweet reminder of school ground days. SOFT PLAY had really brought out the kids in us all, for nothing but elation rippled through the air.
Throughout the night it took me a few five-minute cool downs out of the pit to regain my energy and balance. This was a testament to the level at which those two can bring 80 minutes of non-stop punk rock paradise, hardly slowing down for anyone. Laurie with his gargantuan leaps, legs splayed and Isaac working a drum kit while also belting out song after song. It was an exhibition of endurance and commitment, for very few could bring such vigour to a closing show after two solid weeks of touring. One of the more poignant moments of respite for everyone was the homage to Isaac’s friend Bailey who passed away a few years ago along with Laurie’s late partner Emma. A sea of linked arms and shoulders made up the crowd while ‘Everything and Nothing’ brought a tear to many an eye. An ode to lost friends and family, the loudest cheer of the night came after the two men on stage embraced passionately, their bond seemingly unbreakable.
All in all, a Halloween well spent. Not much need for cheap thrills and jump scares when adrenaline is handed out for free by SOFT PLAY. Four albums, a hiatus, name change and now they’re posting up at some of the biggest venues across the UK, you can’t help but feel proud of them.
I will however personally be calling out the pair of them for not playing ‘Cheer Up London’ in London, for their final show of the tour… then again, that’s a pretty punk thing to do because after all, we’re all dead already.
And there you have it - what a duo, what a performance. Our man is in glorious recovery and stands by every word of his report. Check out more from Soft Play via the socials below. Over and out.