Gig review: Emergency Break pass with distinction

Left to right: Oran, James, Ewan, Leo, Joe.

The graduation party was a massive success and Emergency Break passed the exams with distinction. Their performance at The Grace was exquisite, worthy of top marks in entertainment. They're entering a new era, moving on from being noisy students. Now they are noisy graduates.

Their third big London headliner was named as their graduation party, as they decided to get rid of the school uniforms. At least, that’s what they’re saying now. You never know with them.

Building on the confidence from their numerous previous shows, knowing how much their fans love their antics, the indie rock band from London delivered yet another great party. They gave absolutely everything. To the point where both guitarists Joe and Oran cut their fingers with the strings and picks.

As always, their show was full of energy, creativity, theatrics, led by their incredibly charismatic front man. Whatever I say about Leo, may not be enough to describe him. He’s born to be a showman. He has the natural ability, the charisma, the creativity, the intelligence, the confidence. He can command the crowd, he can take ownership of the place, he can make everything function his way, with everyone happily following his lead. When he’s performing, everyone in the room is having a great time. During a song, he gets a guitarist on his shoulders, he jumps onto a barrel, he dives into the crowd, he does everything other people would have found unthinkable. And the fans love it. They don’t know what he’s going to come up with next, but they know it’s going to be fun and they’ll go along with it.

The uniform is gone

In November, in that little video with Barry Bones, they indicated their intentions to move on from the uniform. Their headline show at The Grace, officially marked their graduation. The uniform is gone. In addition to that, they have already ditched the covers and the sound effects. Emergency Break now play only originals and only with live sounds. But don’t worry, being more mature and professional doesn’t mean the fun is gone. The antics are still very much on. In fact, they keep coming up with new tricks.

As they mentioned in their interview with ArtsyMix a few months ago, all the band members are up for it. The videos they make before their headline shows, indicate just that.

The graduation party

They started with a song they’ve had for a long time, which will still remain unreleased for the foreseeable future, called Fried Gold. Then, it was time for their latest single Hometown, which is becoming more and more popular. This is not just backed by the numbers, but also by the comments from people. The more you listen to that song, the more you like it.

The 3rd song, has probably featured in every single one of their shows, even the acoustic set they did last year. It’s their first single, Pyro. It’s a special song to them and it’s very popular with their fans.

Wandering is the same song that used to be called Wunder. It will be one of their next 3 releases, possibly the next release.

Throughout the set, Emergency Break delivered a high energy feel-good show, which obviously ended with Leo crowd surfing. It looked like The Grace was not big enough to meet the demand for tickets. It was sold out long before the gig date and there was still high demand after it was sold out, as they added a few extra tickets.

Entertainment is the main focus for Emergency Break. That was the idea, when the first shape of the band was created in January 2023 by Leo, Ewan and Joe. All three of them are trained actors and their main purpose was to entertain. In their interview with ArtsyMix at the end of July 2024, Leo said “we fell on the brand, before we fell on the band”. That makes total sense, when you have a band made up of three actors with no drummer. Then of course, the music side took shape as well, with 5 members (including a drummer) in Emergency Break’s first headline show at the Camden Assembly in September 2023. There was a 6th member since late 2023 for about 1 year.

Since Finlay left the band, the remaining 5 members decided to move on from using a Digital Interface Pad for sound effects. Around the same time, they were able to move on from covers, as they had written enough songs of their own.

The graduates are:

Ewan Hawkins
Bass

Photo by Connie Burke.

James Brooks
Drums

Photo by Connie Burke.

Joe Adams
Guitar

Photo by Connie Burke.

Oran Docker
Rhythm guitar

Photo by Connie Burke.

Leo Gerchen
Lead vocals, stage diving, crowd surfing, carrying people on his shoulders, taking off his top, climbing on random things, making faces in cameras, jumping around, standing on barriers, smashing telephones, playing one power chord on the guitar, carrying a skeleton with a tie.

Photo by Connie Burke.

Rapid progress

This time last year, they hadn’t played too many shows since the Camden Assembly headliner and they had only released 1 track, Pyro. But as they got into 2024, they said it would be the year that would define whether or not they will make it as a band. Since then, they played around 20 shows, they set up their own festival, they released 3 more tracks, they sold out 2 more big headline shows, they replaced covers with originals and got discovered by a lot more people. Out of all the bands I know, they are probably the band that made the most progress in the last 7-8 months. And there’s no indication they’re slowing down. At the start of 2025, it’s absolutely clear they’re here to stay.

The evolution of Emergency Break

In May 2024, when I went to see them live for the first time at The Macbeth, I could already see the potential. I wrote they were hoping to emerge and break into the music scene in 2024. Now I can tell you, they have absolutely done that.

In my review last May, I also mentioned we needed them to write more songs. And they’ve done that too. In the last few months they’ve written more songs and they’ve also developed other songs they already had. They’re no longer relying on covers. Since the last part of 2024, they have a full set of originals and they can’t even fit all their original songs into the set list anymore. In 2024 they released Everything You Make I Break, Can You Feel It and Hometown, with every new release being a better production than the previous ones. Those are 3 of the 6 songs that will be included in their EP that is coming out this year. The other 3 were also in the set on Friday.

They’re not your typical band. They don’t do things like others. Which band has songs with titles like Irish Ecstasy and Fried Gold? Which band does dress rehearsals? How many bands can be so creative and deliberately try to look not too serious, while at the same time having the business skills to build a festival from scratch, even at such a young age?

I’ve seen them live a few times since The Macbeth last May and I’ve witnessed the evolution step by step. I’ve also developed a good understanding of their personalities, their creativity and business skills. They created a festival before they even established a name as a band. This year, their festival will be bigger, with some incredible artists taking part. It’s really admirable what they have been able to create.

And as much as they may want to make you think they’re bad boys with their antics on stage, they are in fact some of the nicest people you can imagine. Not just Leo. The others too.

Upcoming releases

In 2025, they will release 3 more singles: Wandering, Outsiders and Irish Ecstasy. Those 3 songs will be included in their first EP, along with the 3 songs they released in 2024: Everything You Make I Break, Can You Feel It and Hometown. That’s a total of 6 singles, wrapped up in the EP. They also have Pyro.

In addition to those, there are other songs that keep popping up. Fried Gold is not new at all. The same goes for It’s Over, which is well known to their loyal fans. A couple of months ago, at the Rooz Studios they played Get Out Alive for the first time and then at The Grace in January 25, they played another new song, Adventure Island. There is another song called Almost Famous, which they have played live only twice. So, they have at least 12 originals, 7 of which will have been released probably by summer 2025. I would imagine It’s Over will also be released at some point and Pyro will probably be re-produced.

More to come

Emergency Break have well and truly emerged and they keep evolving. There is a lot more to come from them. Don’t forget, they also have their own festival this July. After the great success they had in their first year, they’re going even bigger this time. They have some great names on the line up and they’re expanding the space, to accommodate more fans. Announcements will be made in the next couple of months.

Find more videos of Emergency Break on the ArtsyMix Youtube channel.