A Two-Fingered Salute to Safe Rock: Surviving Airbourne’s Camden Mutiny

Written by Louise Phillips on March 13, 2026

A Two-Fingered Salute to Safe Rock: Surviving Airbourne’s Camden Mutiny

Rock music was never meant to be a polite dinner guest. It was born to kick the front door off its hinges, raid the drinks cabinet, and leave the front room carpet in an absolute state. Yet, somewhere down the line, a lot of modern guitar bands started apologising for being loud. Thank God nobody handed Airbourne the memo.

When the Gutsy tour rolled into Camden’s legendary Roundhouse on Saturday, 28 February 2026, it promised a loud night. What the venue got was a glorious, triumphant mutiny. This wasn’t an exercise in chin-stroking musical theory; it was a relentless, riotous manifesto of volume, blunt-force trauma, and the glorious, uncompromising art of proper, all-night mayhem.

The Ignition: Getting Blown Away by Avalanche

Opening a bill for a band as notoriously unhinged as Airbourne is usually a thankless task. Most of the time, the support act is treated as background noise while punters queue for an overpriced pint. Avalanche, however, made that entirely impossible. Hailing from the sun-baked Sydney streets that birthed the pub-rock legends of yesteryear, this four-piece delivered what was easily one of the most electrifying opening sets in recent memory.

The theatre began with Edvard Grieg’s In The Hall Of The Mountain King oozing through the PA, winding the room’s energy up to a frantic, sweating boil. When they finally kicked the doors off the hinges with “Blondie,” the sudden wall of distortion nearly knocked the crowd off its feet. Avalanche possesses a rare, lightning-in-a-bottle chemistry; every riff landed like a shockwave.

The moment that truly left jaws on the floor arrived during “Armed to the Teeth.” Lead guitarist Veronica Campbell, a whirlwind of hair and Gibson SG fury, did the unthinkable. She plunged straight off the stage and right into the sweaty abyss of the stalls. Shredding a blues-soaked solo while submerged in a churning sea of leather and denim, she absolutely demolished the wall between the band and the crowd. It was a staggering display of proper rock star swagger that set a ferociously high bar for the rest of the night. Avalanche didn’t just warm up the stage; they set it on fire.

The Escalation: Surviving Asomvel’s Hammer

Following Avalanche’s high-octane assault, the UK’s own Asomvel brought a different kind of heavy to the circular arena. If the openers were a high-speed buzzsaw, Asomvel was a sledgehammer. Channeling the grease-stained, working-class spirit of Motörhead, they hit the room with a wall of iron-clad sound that felt like being battered by a rhythmic gale.

The Rickenbacker bass tone was an absolute menace, an overdriven, clanking roar that rattled the modern walls of the venue and vibrated right through fillings. The frontman, barking into a microphone angled at the ceiling, delivered a vocal that sounded like it had been washed down with a pint of unleaded. It was a relentless, heavy metal thunder that whipped the audience into a frenzy for the main event.

The Main Event: The Absolute Chaos of Airbourne

If Avalanche set the bar, Airbourne completely obliterated it. By the time the house lights died for the headliners, the Roundhouse was a pressure cooker. The ominous thud of the Terminator 2 theme rolled through the dark, and then, the explosion. Airbourne hit the stage like a force of nature. Opening with the tour’s title track, “Gutsy,” frontman Joel O’Keeffe proved immediately why no one on the planet can touch them right now.

Airbourne understands that rock and roll is the ultimate escapism. Midway through the set, during a blistering rendition of “Raise the Flag,” O’Keeffe took the absolute chaos directly to the floor. Parting a sea of fans, he shredded a ferocious solo while riding on the shoulders of a roadie straight through the heart of the mosh pit. Add in his signature ritual of smashing a fresh tinny against his skull until the aluminum ruptured in a sticky, yeasty baptism, and it was pure, unscripted joy, the kind of wild, raw, high-voltage theatre that keeps the flame of rock burning.

The High-Altitude Hero

The absolute peak was saved for the encore. As the band kicked into “Ready to Rock,” O’Keeffe vanished. Suddenly, a spotlight tracked high up to the balcony, where he seemed to appear by pure magic.

With zero safety gear separating him from the drop, he took off running around the Roundhouse’s upper circular walkway, shredding directly in the faces of the thrilled fans. Watching him toe the line while hammering out a solo was a terrifying, vertigo-inducing sight. It was a defiant spectacle that reminded everyone in the room that rock and roll still has real stakes.

As the solo reached its peak, O’Keeffe disappeared back into the shadows of the upper level, leaving the crowd completely breathless. Seconds later, he reappeared on the stage as if by magic, raising his Gibson Explorer to the gods as the band tore into the earth-shattering closer, “Runnin’ Wild.” It was a triumphant display of a band at the absolute peak of their powers.

The Aftermath

Spilling back onto the damp pavements of Chalk Farm Road, the crowd looked like they’d just survived a highly enjoyable riot. Eardrums were thoroughly battered, denim was drenched in sweat, and thousands of vocal cords were left shredded on the venue floor. It was nothing short of glorious.

Avalanche proved the future of rock is terrifyingly bright, and Asomvel gave the crowd an iron-clad assault. But the night belonged entirely to Airbourne. They proved they are the undisputed kings of the party, delivering a headline set of pure, high-voltage defiance that left the Roundhouse shaken to its foundations.
It was an absolute triumph. Long live the riff, and God save Airbourne!

Photos and review are by Louise Phillips Music Photography and cannot be shared without consent

Avalanche’s incredible new album, ‘Armed To The Teeth’ is out now via MGM! For future tour dates and to connect to the band: https://www.avalanchebandrock.com/

Photos of Avalanche: