Camden Underworld, Thursday 5th February 2026 (words and pictures by Sara-Louise Bowrey)
Camden Underworld is the kind of venue that doesn’t let you stay passive. It’s a room that demands sweat, noise, and something real happening right in front of you. On a cold Thursday night in January, it got exactly that.
HotWax’s biggest London headline show to date wasn’t just a milestone on paper — it felt like a band stepping fully into their own, in the most physical, immediate way possible. With Jeanie and the White Boys setting the tone beforehand, the Underworld turned into a pressure cooker of energy.
Jeanie and the White Boys approach to opening a gig is to start a scene. Frontwoman Jeanie Crystal is impossible to ignore… charismatic, unfiltered, operating somewhere between punk frontperson and theatrical firestarter. Her delivery is raw and emotionally direct, but there’s sharpness underneath it — a sense that even the chaos is intentional.
She takes her time with the crowd too, chatting between songs in a way that feels genuinely connective rather than scripted. It’s loose, engaging, human. By the end of their set, the room isn’t just warmed up — it’s involved.
And then HotWax hit the stage.
From the first moments, it’s clear this is what they do best: pure, visceral force. Not the kind of intensity that feels rehearsed into neatness, but something live and sparkling, like the songs are happening for the first time, right there in the room.
They’re tight without being polished, loud without being hollow. Every riff lands with weight, every rhythm drives straight through the floor, and the whole crowd seems to move on instinct. There’s a sense of release to it — music as adrenaline, as motion, as proof of being alive.
But it’s also the joy that cuts through. Between the chaos, there are knowing smiles and grins shared onstage — the look of a band fully aware they’re doing exactly what they’re meant to be doing. HotWax don’t just sound alive. They look it too.
The set reaches its mighty closing stretch with the mesmerising ‘One More Reason’, a moment that feels almost hypnotic in the middle of all the intensity — before everything erupts one last time.
Then comes their now-infamous ‘Rip It Out’, a closing number that feels like a slow-motion explosion. Both Tallulah and Lola take turns out in the crowd, blurring the line between stage and floor entirely, turning the Underworld into one moving, shouting mass.
This show wasn’t about chasing hype. It wasn’t about playing a “big London date” because that’s what bands do.
It was about presence. About electricity. About a band making it undeniable.
HotWax didn’t simply headline Camden Underworld.
They filled it with life — and ripped it wide open.
