Another night at a sold-out SWG3 Galvanizer, and Scene Queen is poised to kick off the first date of her Hot Shows In Your Area tour. But before her candy-coated chaos takes hold, the evening opens with a pair of acts who waste no time turning the venue into a pressure cooker.

Brighton duo Lake Malice burst onto the stage with a relentless fusion of metalcore, hyperpop, and nu-metal. Their sound is volatile but razor-sharp—bristling with intensity and impossible to ignore. The performance feels like a jolt of electricity: dynamic, high-voltage, and consistently on the verge of collapse in the best possible way. Audience engagement is instant, with every breakdown drawing roars from the floor. By the time they close with the blistering “Bloodbath,” the hunger in the room is palpable, as though the set ended too soon.

A few minutes later, London’s GIRLI flips the atmosphere on its head with a kaleidoscopic blast of cyber-sugar pop laced with garage beats, J-pop inflections, and a kawaii gloss. Her set radiates attitude and humour in equal measure, balancing youthful defiance with playful hooks. Tracks like “Nothing Hurts Like a Girl,” “Hot Mess,” and “Matriarchy” bounce between bratty and anthemic, carried by her sharp charisma. If Lake Malice left the crowd buzzing on raw aggression, GIRLI harnesses that energy and redirects it into pure, unfiltered fun.

Then, the room transforms. When Scene Queen finally takes the stage, SWG3 morphs into a bubblegum-core fantasyland: a sugar-pink fever dream where hardcore breakdowns collide with unapologetic pop spectacle. It’s more than a gig—it’s a theatrical ritual of provocation, empowerment, and communal release.

Scene Queen’s Bimbocore aesthetic threads through every moment of her set, from the neon visuals to the feral breakdowns that send the floor into chaos. Tracks like BDSM, Finger, Pink Hotel, MILF, and the newly released Platform Shoes hit with equal parts gloss and grit. Anthems like Pink Panther, Mutual Masturbation, Barbie & Ken, Pink Rover, and 18+ aren’t just played—they’re lived, each one a weaponised blend of pop hooks and feminist fury.

But what elevates Scene Queen beyond theatrics is her insistence on community. She doesn’t just perform to the audience—she folds them into the show, inducting fans onstage into her mock “sorority,” a tongue-in-cheek ritual that doubles as genuine collective bonding. The crowd responds in kind: screaming, moshing, and belting every lyric as if the songs belong to them.

SWG3’s industrial intensity provides the perfect backdrop, amplifying the contrast between sweetness and savagery. The night rides high on the friction of extremes: aggressive riffs and candy-pink aesthetics, snarling breakdowns and glittering choruses. By the end, it feels less like a concert and more like a neon-lit power surge—one fuelled by joy, rage, and the radical promise of pop spectacle.

Article: Marco Cornelli