LIVE REVIEW + PHOTOS: DELILAH BON AT THE GARAGE, LONDON ON 21/03/2025
Full photo gallery here
Being called a 'brat' a decade ago would've garnered a very different reaction to the same accusation in 2025.
Nowadays Delilah Bon embraces the label as a bona-fide Punk-Brat and the description is apt. Charlie XCX may have notoriously popularised the phrase last summer but in the world of down and dirty hip-hop infused nu-metal, the description reeks of raw attitude and authentic rage.
Evil, Hate Filled Female, Delilah's second full length album was received with all the polarisation one would expect from 50 minutes of bad-tempered Riot grrrl tracks with explicit feminist and political statements woven through every line.
Tonight, Delilah Bon has attracted an audience of young women and their very much chaperoned men, creating a safe space to absolutely lose your shit.
Brighton trio, Eville kicked the night off with a nonstop journey through every rock-show trick in the book. An 'everyone get low' moment proceeded an actually decent wall of death, synchronised dance moves then culminating in a barrier party with band members flitting around the crowd. Warmed up? The room was ready to burst into flame.
Delilah Bon took to a stage littered with placards stating very clearly her 2025 punk ethos. 'Trans Rights Are Human Rights', 'My Body, My Choice' and 'Pride' painted boldly all around her, she launched unapologetically into 'Brat'.
'Chiquitita’, an ABBA inspired romp followed, prefaced by a dedication to older women who leave their husbands- a demographic not currently represented in Delilah's audience of young women and the LGBTQ+ community. The youth should be given some well-deserved props here. For a generation characterised by being glued to their devices, the abundant pre-show selfies gave way to a blissfully phone free audience. It seems modern crowds are still able to be in the moment in a world saturated with content.
"Haha, we're in a cult," Bon teased after a particularly deafening round of screams to 'Chop Dicks'. One of Bon's strengths is in seamlessly mixing humour, exasperation, anger and self-awareness into a package that completely embodies traditional, authentic punk. Indeed, she has attracted her fair share of criticism for her outspokenness as any self-respecting punk will, but the confidence to say what she thinks, regardless of the consequences is illustrated no more perfectly than her proclamation of;
"I don't think I'm getting into America anytime soon," whilst running around the stage with 'Fuck Trump' written across her knees.
A brilliantly frantic run of songs including 'I don't listen to you', 'My Girlz' and 'The Internet' culminated in Bon storming through an impactful stripped back performance of 'Not The President'.
Regardless of the musical prowess, quantity of bangers and sheer masterful stage presence, what has to be respected just as highly, is the lunacy of a show where the front woman is in the middle of a heartfelt monologue about the struggles of growing up female and then gets smacked full in the face by an inflatable penis.
The show closed with Bon simulating devil horns as she screamed her way through 'Evil, Hate Filled Female' and 'Maverick' whilst reminding us all that:
“You’ve gotta be a bit evil to get what you want.””
Words: Imogen Bird
Photos: Florelle Servageon
Full setlist below:
1. Freak of the Week/ Brat
2. Chiquitita
3. Chop Dicks
4. School
5. I Don't Listen To You
6. I Am The Best
7. My Girlz
8. Clown
9. Finally See Me
10. Freak Alert
11. The internet
12. War on Women
13. Bad Attitude
14. I Wish A Bitch Would
15. Dead Men Don't Rape
16. Evil, Hate Filled Female
17. Maverick