Fierce, Frantic and On Fire!! Ferocious Trailblazers Saint Agnes Bring Their Long Anticipated Bloodsuckers Tour to The Garage, London!! Photos and Review by Louise Phillips

Fierce, Frantic and On Fire!! Ferocious Trailblazers Saint Agnes Bring Their Long Anticipated Bloodsuckers Tour to The Garage, London!!

Hot off the back of their 2023 tour with reggae-metal Icons Skindred, Saint Agnes blew the stage to pieces with a blinding set of tracks from their second album ‘Bloodsuckers’ as well as some savage tracks from their first album, the 2019 ‘Welcome to Silvertown’.

With support from UK rock duo CRASHFACE and punk rock powerhouse BEX, the venue was literally heaving and the atmosphere was electric!! And as Saint Agnes took to the stage in total darkness to the sound of Austen’s demonic tones and pounding drums as they less played, more detonated ‘Bloodsuckers’, the title track from their second album, it was all out punk rock annihilation!

Saint Agnes whilst a heavy rock band are totally unlike anyone else, they’re a group of rebel vampires, maverick misfits that less shout, more scream out to those people out there who just don’t fit into the prescriptive and societal norms of this world! They are outspoken, fearless and visceral. Not just the voice of a disenfranchised generation but the voice of everyone who doesn’t fit into this big bad world!! Their songs are catchy, their music’s loud, their videos raw and uncensored and their sound like a bomb being detonated in Dracula’s lair! A musical masterpiece that comes from somewhere between heaven and hell. Yet, Saint Agnes are not afraid to talk from the heart, their songs speak about grief, mental illness and painful emotions.

With Kitty A. Austen on lead vocals and guitar, Jon James Tufnell on vocals and guitar and Andy Head on drums, the chemistry within this band can only be described as stunning, they are clearly a band you love to play together and Austen is one of those lead singers who just commands the stage!! A total Rock God, a charismatic crowd-surfing, edgy as hell performer with a fierce presence and a powerful voice that’s full of emotion yet with a gritty primal sound!

A welcome addition to the East London three piece was bass guitar maestro Maxine Cahill, who not only rocked the stage playing guitar for CRASHFACE but then took to the stage to play bass for Saint Agnes! She had boundless energy and fitted into the tight and well-established Saint Agnes so well, it was like she’d always been there!! No small feet in a band this established!

One of the most breathtaking parts of the set was when Austen walked into the audience and sang the spine-tinglingly beautiful ‘This Is Not The End’, a heartfelt and tender track that Austen wrote after the death of her mum last year. Her performance showed power yet fragility and a raw beauty that left the audience wiping away their tears. But if the crowd thought that Saint Agnes were slowing down and heading for a more mellow rest of the set, they were absolutely wrong as moments later, Austen returned to the stage as they ripped through the apocalyptic ‘Outsider’.

‘I mean nothing to you’ talks about the pain and isolation from feeling that you mean nothing to those around you. Hearing this track makes you feel that this is something the band have experienced. It screams we’re in this together, a song full of compassion and emotion.

A stand out track was ‘At War with Myself’, the kind of track that makes the hairs on your neck stand up!! All about how we are often our own worst enemy stuck in a cycle of self-destruction! Brutal in its honesty and absolutely captivating!

The final track of the night was the incredible ‘Follow You’ with its’ savage vocals and driving drums and guitars, it was a rage fuelled fury laden rockfest and a blinding end to an epic night!! And as Saint Agnes left the stage to ecstatic applause having proved themselves to be one of the hottest rock bands on the UK music scene right now, there was a real buzz in the auditorium, a feeling that it won’t long before Saint Agnes are playing the bigger venues in their own right because whilst Saint Agnes would be a worthy support band on any tour, they are anything but second best, they are the real deal, a band on the way to big things! So is 2024 going to be the year that Saint Agnes hit the big time? If tonight’s performance is anything to go by then the answer has to be a resounding YES!

Words and photos by Louise Phillips Music Photography

Saint Agnes Setlist:

Bloodsuckers
Animal
I Mean Nothing to You
Daughter of Lucifer
Vampire
At War With Myself
This is Not the End
Outsider
Repent
Middle Finger

Encore:
Follow You