After five days of sounds from around the world at SXSW London, we can think of few acts less apt to close out the music programme than Shame. The group’s show at Shoreditch’s Village Underground on Friday (June 5) was an ode to a home-grown story, and just what can be achieved by group of mates who simply love creating together.
The five-piece got their start practicing in their local south London pub (before they were old enough to buy a drink) where the regulars introduced the teenagers to the musical greats that had come before them: The Fall, The Stooges and Tom Waits, to name a few.
That inspired their 2018 debut album, Songs Of Praise, a snotty, anxiety-ridden update on post-punk that helped revive the genre alongside Idles’ Brutalism and Fontaines D.C.’s Dogrel. Frequent gigs at the 150-capacity Brixton Windmill were so exciting, they kickstarted an entire ‘South London scene’ that influenced everyone from Goat Girl and Black Midi to The Last Dinner Party. It wasn’t long before they were touring the world and supporting big name acts such as Foo Fighters.
Three albums later and Shame — vocalist Charlie Steen, guitarists Eddie Green and Sean Coyle-Smith, bassist Josh Finerty and drummer Charlie Forbes — are still one of the most exciting British guitar bands around. 2025’s Cutthroat saw the five-piece return to character play and rock ‘n’ roll theatrics after two introspective records about mental health, changing friendships, break-ups and addiction while their homecoming gig at SXSW London happened between headline tours of Asia and South America.
If you wanted to see who was truly “shaping the future” at SXSW, as per the festival’s mission statement, Shame at Village Underground was the place to be. These were the best moments from the show.
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A Rapid Start
Most bands might ease a festival crowd into things but from the moment Shame launched into the menacing “Axis of Evil,” their foot was firmly on the gas. The five-piece didn’t let up for a moment of the hour-long gig either as Steen conducted mosh pits with his mic stand while Green jumped, kicked and thrashed about the stage. The audience was just as rowdy: the front of the venue was a constant mass of sweaty bodies, and at the back of the room fans started a dance pit for the country-influenced “Quiet Life”.
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Stripping Back Ego
Shame might be one of the most influential London bands of the 21st century but that doesn’t mean they’ve ever believed their own hype. “We’re here for one night only to play you some trad-improv-jazz-metal” joked a smirking, sunglass-wearing Steen at the start of the gig. Later, he told the room about his very first visit to the venue where he took a pill, threw up and was abandoned by his mates so they could dance to techno. It’s not a typical tale of rockstar excess but it’s certainly relatable.
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Sense of Togetherness
In the middle of all the giddy chaos that Shame conjured came the emotionally-charged “Adderall.” A booming, painful song about addiction and the disease’s wider impact might not be the obvious choice for a deafening singalong but there were times the crowd was louder than the band onstage. Arms raised to the sky, Steen encouraged everyone in the room to let whatever they were feeling out, which created a beautiful, tender moment of community.
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Using Their Voice
The group has never shied away from being political, if the moment felt right. Their 2017 single “Visa Vulture” was written in protest of the Brexit vote and the government’s policies that followed, while recent single “Cowards Around” calls out the lily-livered MPs (Members of Parliament), as well as people who don’t garnish their food. “We all know there are hypocrites in the world…” Steen explained before playing it, leaving room for the crowd to interpret that however they wanted. There was no mistaking what he meant when he said “as always, free Palestine” at the end of the gig though.
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Closing on a High
Shame is the sort of band that people have grown up with. Vicious early singles “One Rizla” and “Concrete” captured the sound of band’s — and its audience’s — youthful misadventures, and it was easy to see how their knotty 2021 album Drunk Tank Pink crashed into the top 10 on the U.K.’s Official Albums Chart with the rowdy response to “Alphabet”. Despite the love for the classics though, it was the new material that really went off: “Nothing Better” was a searing, playful hunk of angular post-punk, while the cathartic kick of “Cutthroat” closed out the night with the biggest mosh pit yet. Anyone else excited for what comes next?
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