Steamy Hot Milk Boil Over at Edinburgh's La Belle Angele

★★★★★ (5/5)

HOT MILK PERFORMING AT EDINBURGH’S LA BELLE ANGELE
PHOTOCREDIT: WILFRED MAGNUSSEN

Hot Milk delivered a blistering performance at Edinburgh's La Belle Angele, delighting the passionate crowd and confirming their status as one of alternative rock's most exciting live acts. Having supported the Foo Fighters and You Me at Six, the basement gig was beyond intimate.

The Manchester four-piece stormed onto the stage with 90 Seconds to Midnight. from their soon-to-be-released album, Corporation P.O.P.

The crushing opener immediately set the place ablaze. Frontwoman Hannah ‘Han’ Mee commanded attention from her first power chord, her voice shifting effortlessly between the melodic hooks and throat-shredding screams that sent the packed crowd into a frenzy.

Co-vocalist and guitarist Jim Shaw was Mee's perfect foil, their contrasting tones – his gritty baritone roar against her razor-sharp alto – created a dynamic vocal interplay that drew the passionate and knowledgeable in from the start.

They flew straight into a fan-favourite HORROR STORY which had the crowd jumping, surging back and forth, belting out every word.

This was the band’s first outing since last November, and they landed full of vitality. Mee challenged the crowd to up the energy between songs in her Manic bark. They responded with a rowdy mosh pit forming for I JUST WANNA KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I'M DEAD and OVER YOUR DEAD BODY.

They took a chance with the Scottish crowd by sharing another new track, About England, a passionate song about their mixed feelings for their home country. They needn’t have been concerned as the crowd loved it. A new English National Anthem?

The band’s dual-vocal approach has become the band's secret weapon, lending emotional depth where lesser bands might rely on volume alone. This was highlighted during the anthemic choruses of Where Does the Light Get In and Bloodstream. The rhythm section of Harry Deller (bass) and Nathan Sanderson (drums) provided a thunderous foundation that had the historic venue's floorboards literally vibrating.
The setlist leaned heavily on material from their 2023 album, A Call to the Void, but the band made sure to pepper in new music, all of which was well received.

An emotional highlight was BREATHING UNDERWATER, a post-punk love song full of pain and passion that obviously meant a lot to Han and Jim, who embraced throughout the track. Many in the audience were clearly moved.

They closed with PARTY ON MY DEATHBED that had the Scottish crowd shouting every word back at them, and the room transformed into a sea of bouncing bodies and raised fists.

The Band’s encore, 2020 single, Glass Spiders, brought the night to its thunderous conclusion, sweat-drenched fans stumbled toward the exits wearing expressions of satisfied exhaustion. Hot Milk had delivered exactly what their growing reputation promised: a cathartic, high-energy spectacle that reminded everyone why live music matters.

Hot Milk is a band on the move with American and European tours and UK festivals planned for the rest of this year. This performance stood as a testament to their superpower - genuine connection – their ability to unite band and audience in the beautiful chaos that only live rock music can create.