Music

Guest review: Monarks support Counterfeit at Electric Ballroom

South West rockers Monarks report from their Electric Ballroom show with the mighty Counterfeit…

Tonight we played with Counterfeit and Bellevue Days on a packed out show at Camden’s Electric Ballroom. Little did we know what a contrast the first half of the day (of which we spent staring out the window of our van at the fields of the west country) would be in comparison to the sweaty, screaming room we were to play to later on that night.

As we pulled up to the venue, Jamie Bower, frontman of the headline act Counterfeit greeted us and we immediately felt at home in a venue of larger scale compared to our regular shows. Before soundcheck we took some time to shop around the Camden markets and to meet fans of Counterfeit who had been queuing outside the venue from early afternoon.

We then met the other support act Bellevue Days who were a pleasure to hang out with throughout the day and after soundcheck was done, we teamed up to set up the merch stands as fans started to arrive for the meet and greet.

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Doors opened at 18:00 whilst we stood by the merch stands and watched fans sprint to get to the front. Within minutes the venue was packed and the atmosphere really started to pick up.

It came to 18:45 and it was time for us to play our biggest show yet. As we walked out we were greeted with some very loud screams which really took us by surprise and immediately got us going. We gave it everything we could each minute we were on stage and in return we managed to win over the room. The crowd were generously interactive and we felt a genuinely great connection with them throughout the entire set. We scored a great photo of the ever growing crowd before going into two last huge tracks, and with guitars covered in blood and sweat we had the crowd jumping before receiving a truly amazing round of applause for our favourite set to date.

Afterwards we met new fans at the merch stand and spent the next 30 minutes chatting to people who seemed so excited by our set which made the night even more exciting for us.

Bellevue Days followed up and kept the momentum going, blasting through a particular favourite track of ours by them, Pepper Tea, before making way for the headline act, Counterfeit.

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Jamie and the band were seen being photographed in their dressing room when they were called up to hit the stage. The band walked on stage and the noise that came from the crowd was insane. We watched side stage as Jamie ducked behind the PA system, listening to the crowd grow in hysteria before running out and giving one of the most energetic entrances to a show that we have ever seen. From this point on the room belonged to Counterfeit, who smashed through a 60-minute set consisting of huge guitars, stage dives and more screaming girls. New single Enough was a big favourite of ours, with its Marilyn Manson-esque vibe it showed the bands songwriting at its strongest.

As Counterfeit’s set came to a close we headed back to the merch stand to meet and chat to more people that caught our set, getting in plenty of photos before giving a huge thanks to Counterfeit and the promoters for having us. We now head back to Bristol for one last rehearsal before heading out on our first ever uk tour with Fort Hope on Tuesday.

Don’t miss the full photo gallery.

Catch Monarks support Fort Hope on the following dates:

April
26 – Southampton, Joiners Arms
27 – Cambridge, Portland Arms
May
01 – Bristol, Louisiana
05 – London, Barfly
17 – Birmingham, Asylum 2

Book tickets Fort Hope’s UK tour now at Ticketmaster.co.uk.