BATTERED, SWEATY BUT VERY SATISFIED: A WILD NIGHT WITH WSTR
LIVE REVIEW | WSTR, Rebellion, Manchester, 24/09/25 by Craig Harston
Bursting onto the scene during the ‘silver age of pop punk’ alongside the likes of ROAM and Trash Boat, Liverpool’s WSTR have been (relatively) quietly bubbling under within the scene for the past decade. While they’ve never made it into the bigger venues like some of their contemporaries, they’ve made a name for themselves in the more intimate locations, including at tonight’s sold out show at Manchester’s Rebellion.
Celebrating ten years of their debut EP, 2015’s ‘SKRWD’, the pop punk five piece hit the stage (in front of their ‘Still Can’t Afford A Backdrop’ backdrop!) following a tongue-in-cheek intro advising that they’re still shit after ten years and alongside a couple of people in giant rat costumes! The whole room went absolutely wild as they kicked off the first song from the EP, ‘South Drive’, with beach balls and crowd surfing on turtle lilos (which sadly had to be taken away ahead of ‘Brainsick’), and the energy in the room didn’t let up for the duration of the show. The crowd was totally there for the entire EP, singing along and clapping on every song including ‘Graveyard Shift’ (the first song WSTR ever wrote, with singer Sammy Clifford spotting several of the old tour shirts in the crowd) and WSTR could easily have called it a night after finishing the six songs found on ‘SKRWD’.
But of course WSTR have many great songs in their arsenal with three great albums under their belt (2017’s ‘Red, Green Or Inbetween’, 2018’s ‘Identity Crisis’ and 2023’s ‘Til The Wheels Fall Off’). The crowd kept the mosh pits going through the likes of ‘Lonely Smiles’, ‘Promiscuous’ and ‘JOBBO’ (“Who has work tomorrow?!”) and Sammy led the room in plenty of pogo-ing during ‘Crisis’ (which was also got a great singalong going) and ‘Footprints’. Slowing things down a little midway through the set for ‘See You In Hell’, Sammy directed people to let someone else get on their shoulders (if they had strong shoulders) for the duration of the introspective song. Add in excellent renditions of ‘All The Rage’, ‘Featherweight’, ‘Bad To The Bone’ and ‘Eastbound & Down’ (with Sammy pretty much conceding that the crowd were singing louder than he was, allowing them to sing the opening, bridge and ending to the latter song) it was basically a live ‘greatest hits’ package of WSTR songs.
Heading into their final two songs, WSTR blasted through ‘Filthy’ (plenty of singing along on the ‘Na, na, na’s’) and then had a little surprise up their sleeve for the final song, ending with a brutal rendition of Limp Bizkit’s ‘Break Stuff, which included Sammy asking everyone to get down during the bridge resulting in the whole room exploding back into life as the song kicked back in for it’s final chorus. While they could have easily finished with another of their own bangers (‘Gobshite’, or ‘Riddle Me This’ would have slotted in nicely) it felt like a victory lap for the band, rounding off the night perfectly and ensuring everyone left battered, sweaty and very satisfied.
