Bilk, the band from Essex, played a show in Munich at the Milla on Saturday, March 15th as part of their ‘Essex, Drugs and Rock and Roll Tour 2025’. Despite it being their first time in the city, Bilk – Sol Abrahams (vocals, guitar), Luke Hare (bass) and Harry Gray (drums) – managed to have the show sell out, with a packed room filled with energy throughout the whole set.
Support for the night was the German singer Fabian Livrée – Deafdawg as his artist name. Although technical problems were delaying the start of his set, the crowd made him feel welcomed. They were excited and cheered just when he was about to start with the first song of his set. Once he finished the song, the crowd clapped and he said: “A thousand times thank you.” He continued with one of his two so far released songs ‘lovetoy’, followed by the unreleased one ‘Destroy Chaos’.
Amid his set, he joked about him thinking he has lost the crowd since he’s from Dortmund and there’s a supposed rivalry between this city and Munich – referring to fans of the city’s football clubs. As the 4th song of his set, he performed the second of his (so far) released songs ‘für immer’. The crowd and Deafdawg shared a moment when he said cheers and people then put their beer bottles in the air.
To close his set, he again performed the song ‘für immer’, during which he went into the crowd, high-fiving fans as they sang and vibed alongside him. Deafdawg visibly had fun himself during his set, he smiled multiple times on stage and he also managed to interact with the audience – who started to catch along more and more during his set. He bowed down, said “Thank you so much Munich,” multiple times, wished lots of fun for Bilk’s set and left the stage.
Next on was Bilk. Sol says “First time in Munich, let’s fucking have it,”, the crowd cheers, followed by their song ‘RNR’. Sol mentioned them having released their new album Essex, Drugs and Rock and Roll in January and with that he introduced the second song of their set ‘Slag’, mentioning that it’s from their new album.
For their song ‘Brand New Day’ Sol encouraged the crowd to start the first mosh pit during their set. After that, he makes sure that people are alright, saying “Everyone’s safety is our number one priority.” During their song ‘Be Someone’ fans raised their hands into the air, followed by Sol playing the songs ‘Skidmark’ and ‘Beatriz’ acoustically. People started chanting when Luke and Harry came back on stage after the later song.
Another mosh pit during ‘On it’! Just at the beginning of the song ‘Tommy’ Sol started an “Oi, Oi’ Oi” chant, which swapped over into the room and had the crowd participating and during it Sol went down in the crowd with his guitar. They played ‘Band Life Blues’ as the last song before the encore, Sol said ‘Thank very much, good night’ and they walked off the stage.
On stage again, Sol enthusiastically asked ‘Do you want another song?’ to the crowd, and people cheered. Followed by the song ‘This Room is Caving in on Me’, accompanied by yet another mosh pit. Fans shouted for the song ‘CM2’ multiple times, and Bilk then performed it after the previous song. Bilk ended their set, and successful evening, with the song ‘Daydreamer’. Another mosh pit again at the front of the room and many people singing along.
Bilk’s energy on stage was transported over to the fans the entire evening, making fans clap and cheer, and starting multiple moshpits. Sol expressed gratitude multiple times during their set on behalf of the band.
