Over the past few years, English rock band Hot Milk has travelled all over the world to play their own shows as well as support huge artists in the alternative scene, such as Foo Fighters and Green Day. While the band was first founded in Manchester in 2018, they didn’t release their debut album until 2023. A mere two years later, they released their second album, CORPORATION P.O.P. On the 11th of February, the band ended their ‘Loud & Fast Live in Europe’ tour at Melkweg in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in support of their latest body of work.
Doors to the venue opened a little later than planned, so once inside, the excited audience didn’t have to wait as long for support act Last Hounds to take to the stage. At exactly 20:00, the five-piece hardcore punk band opened their set with ‘World’s Disease’. It didn’t take much effort for the band to get the crowd hyped, with everyone clapping along right away and jumping up and down during follow-up ‘Balaclava’. Lead singer Mike Skelcher, shirtless right from the start and thus showing off his heavily tattooed chest and stomach, ran around the entire stage while screeching the lyrics. Besides Skelcher, Last Hounds consists of guitarists Tom White and James Valentino, bassist Ben Taylor, and drummer Chris Collins. The five of them really got the crowd going as soon as Skelcher asked for the crowd to split down the middle during ‘Growing Pains’, and so, the night’s first moshpit was formed. He seemed to really appreciate the fans tonight, as before ‘Snakeskin’ he told them how the band “loves coming to Europe” because the people here are “not too cool to have a good time”. The energy in the room only got rowdier from that moment onwards. Skelcher diving off the stage during the next song felt like he gave the audience permission to do the same, and so the first people started crowdsurfing towards the stage. This continued into the set’s final song, ‘Bubbles’, and surely the crowd was truly warmed up after this 30-minute-long showcase of raw energy.
Half an hour later, as a red backdrop decorated with two gigantic Hot Milk logos (literal packages of milk set aflame) was displayed, the introduction to the headliner’s show began to play over the speakers. Sirens could be heard as one by one, the members walked on stage. First up were bassist Tom Paton and drummer Harry Deller, followed by vocalists and guitarists Hannah “Han” Mee and Jim Shaw. The four of them opened the show with ‘Hell Is On Its Way’, followed by ‘Swallow This’, during which Mee immediately asked the crowd to open up the pit. “Tonight, this stage is your stage,” she said, inviting the audience to crowdsurf as well. “Show me what kind of material Amsterdam is made of!”. They happily obliged, and for the rest of the night, there would barely be any moments where there was no surfing or moshing. To ensure safety, Mee named someone the “lord of the pit,” who would watch over the mosh pit and make sure those who fell were picked up. The band continued with ‘Sunburn From Your Bible’ before they went off stage for a moment, the instrumental notes to the interlude ‘Machine Elves’ playing over the speakers.
After ‘90 Seconds to Midnight’, Mee left the stage for another moment, leaving her bandmate Jim Shaw to hype up the crowd before coming back to play ‘Bad Influence’. While the crowd waved and clapped along, Mee had to take a moment to tell people that if they were going to jump off the stage, they truly had to commit to it, as some people were struggling and just fell to the floor instead. The show continued with ‘Insubordinate Ingerland’, a social commentary on the state of the country they were born and raised in. While playing the song, Mee told a man holding a beer to get into the pit, and that he would now be “the messiah”. It’s moments like this that showcase Hot Milk doesn’t need to do much to command the crowd – they’ll do whatever the band wants them to. “Welcome to the church of Hot Milk,” Mee stated when the song was done, “We’re all friends here”. Loud cheers could be heard, and fortunately, when she asked if there were also any foes, the crowd stayed relatively quiet. Tonight, Melkweg’s Oude Zaal would just be a bunch of happy, crowd-surfing worshippers. The band continued their set with a new-and-improved version of ‘Candy Coated Lie$’, and ‘The American Machine’. During the latter, bassist Tom Paton took a fan’s phone and hung it by its cord from his bass – surely, that made for an interesting video. If you couldn’t have guessed so by now, the show was wild, and the audience went crazy, which did lead Mee to ask some fans at the front if they were okay, as the crowdsurfers were getting a little heavy for them. While Mee and Shaw love for their shows to raise the venue’s roof, they also continuously show how much they care for their fans’ safety. Fortunately for those struggling, they were able to take a little breather before and during ‘BREATHING UNDERWATER’ from debut album A Call to the Void. The energy did get packed right back up during ‘BLOODSTREAM’ and ‘OVER YOUR DEAD BODY’.
While playing ‘Asphyxiate’, the band motioned for the crowd to wave along, while Mee also mentioned how special it was for this to be the band’s first-ever headline show in Amsterdam. Throughout the song, people started to get up on one another’s shoulders, and this trend continued into ‘Glass Spiders’. Introducing this final song before the night’s encore, Mee said that “songs completely transcend the human body”. She described writing a song as finding it somewhere in the ether, as if it’s a cipher from the universe that has to be found. After playing this last song, the band left the stage. As the crowd chanted for “one more song”, they of course came back to play not just one, but two more songs. First up was ‘PARTY ON MY DEATHBED’, followed by ‘Chase the Dragon’. The fans knew this was truly their last chance to have a good time, so the amount of moshing and surfing only doubled. It got so intense that Mee felt the need to sit with some fans at the front and protect them from it all. Paton didn’t feel this need at all, as during the final song, he launched into the completely unprepared crowd and…fortunately, did not crash to the ground. As soon as he made it back up the stage, Mee gave him a light smack on the head. Oh well, it was the last show of the tour anyway, so surely everyone’s allowed to go a little crazy. Both the band and the crowd surely did so, making this a show to never forget.
