No barriers, no brakes, and absolutely no intention of behaving — carnage was guaranteed as Gideon rolled into Slay, Glasgow on their UK headline run, backed by a lineup built to test the structural integrity of the venue: Grove Street, Xile, and Still In Love. Thursday night or not, this was always going to get messy.
Still In Love opened to what could politely be called a “warming up” crowd. 6:30pm on a work night isn’t exactly prime chaos hour, and plenty of punters were still shaking off the day job. That didn’t slow the band down. Their set leaned hard into raw emotional hardcore, with “Pillar of Strength” from Recovery Language dedicated to Johnny Saville of the English hardcore scene — a heartfelt nod delivered with a grin and the instruction to “sing along if you know it… if you don’t, spin kick your mate anyway.” A mission statement, really.
Xile wasted no time shifting the room from polite nodding to full-body commitment. Frontman Luke Mason had the crowd in his grip from his first step on stage, ordering the back rows forward until the floor space evaporated. A self-described Kiwi-meets-UK collision, their set was relentless. Tracks like “369” and “I Am Your God” triggered 30 minutes of non-stop motion: headbanging, spinning kicks, and the first proper pit of the night. The temperature in the room climbed fast — and it wasn’t going back down.
By the time Grove Street took over, the venue felt primed and volatile. Opening punches “Hunting Season” and “The Path To Righteousness” locked the crowd in immediately, before their recent single “Self Sabotage”. The Hampshire hardcore mob are no strangers to Glasgow, and it showed — this was a reunion as much as a performance. Familiarity bred chaos, not comfort.
And then it was time.
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Gideon are one of those bands that sit on a personal must-see list for years, building expectation with every release. When the lights dropped, they didn’t just meet that expectation — they steamrolled it. The band kicked the door in with “Wrong One”, and from that moment the set never loosened its grip. Heavy hitters like “Push It Back”, “More Power”, and “Take Off” landed with demolition force, each breakdown drawing bigger reactions than the last.
Mid-set came the command: wall of death. Glasgow didn’t hesitate. The floor split clean down the middle, tension hanging for a heartbeat before the collision — and when it came, it was glorious. Pure, chaotic release. Exactly what the band asked for, exactly what the city delivered.
Alabama collided with Glasgow in a blur of metalcore, hardcore and flashes of nu metal swagger. The energy exchange between stage and floor felt endless; the band fed the crowd, the crowd fed it straight back louder every time. They closed on “No Love”, a final, crushing exclamation mark that left the room wrecked and grinning.
If there’s one criticism to level, it’s only because the set deserved more space to breathe. Gideon don’t need three support bands to prove a point — they’ve already proven it. Trim the bill, stretch the headline slot past the hour mark, and let them fully unleash. A 45-minute set felt like a teaser for something even bigger waiting to happen.
For someone who’s been to a fair share of hardcore shows, this one hit differently. This wasn’t just another stop on a tour — it felt like a statement. If there’s any justice in the world, this run launches them straight onto the bigger festivals. They’ve got the volume, the presence, and the songs to own those stages.
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Photos by Skull Lens Photography
