Brighton is the last night of the UK leg of this 12-date “Hot Shock” tour, which began in Portsmouth at the end of January and called in at Norwich, Birmingham, Bristol, London, Sheffield, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Nottingham and Manchester before the final show. HotWax headed straight off to Europe after Brighton’s storming sold out gig, for seven shows in seven countries, kicking off in Amsterdam.
The 825 capacity Chalk venue was totally rammed for this [kind-of] homecoming show. The trio of bassist Lola Sam, singer/guitarist Tallulah Sim-Savage and drummer Alfie Sayers are based in Hastings, but they all went to music college in Brighton where Lola and Tallulah met Alfie.
The two girls have been writing music together since they were 12-years-old after they met at secondary school, and from 2017 the two were in band called The Kiffs.
The current HotWax trio was formed in 2021 and they released their debut album “Hot Shock” in March 2025 to great acclaim. HotWax began self-releasing singles, including “Stay Cool”, “Pat the Killer Cat”, “When We’re Dead”, and “Barbie (Not Yours)”. They signed to record label Marathon Artists while publishing via Transgressive Records.
They released debut EP “A Thousand Times in May 2023” with its lead single “Treasure”, and then a subsequent EP “Invite Me, Kindly.” Also in 2023, the band honed their live skills and won new friends at a number of festivals, including The Great Escape, Louis Tomlinson’s Away From Home Festival in Italy, All Points East, Download, and the Reading and Leeds Festival. They opened for Royal Blood that autumn on tour in the UK and North America. The trio have have dropped a dozen singles so far.
On Friday night, HotWax delivered a scorching set that felt both celebratory and hard-earned. The show in support of their debut album – a record that has rapidly propelled the band from promising upstarts to one of the most talked-about young acts in British alternative/indie rock.
The early stretch of the UK tour coincided with Independent Venue Week, with the remaining dates backed in partnership with the Music Venue Trust, a UK charity dedicated to protecting, securing, and improving grassroots music venues – a fitting alignment for a band that cut its teeth in grassroots spaces like this one. Chalk’s close quarters only amplified the intensity that has become HotWax’s trademark.
“Hot Shock” made an immediate impact, shooting straight to number one on the UK Record Store Chart. It was also named Rough Trade’s Album of the Month upon release and later secured the number 16 spot in Rough Trade’s Top 25 Albums of the Year — no small feat for a debut. Rough Trade hailed it as “a snarling, swaggering statement of grunge-laced punk,” a description that rings true in the live setting.
It is on stage where HotWax truly assert themselves. The long-standing creative partnership between the three is evident in the band’s chemistry — sharp, reactive, and unshakeably tight. In recent times HotWax have played more than 200 shows and that relentless touring schedule has turned them into a formidable live force.
Based on their Chalk set, HotWax have officially graduated to a full-on live threat. From the second the trio claimed the stage beneath those mercurial Brighton lights, there was no mistaking it: a high-octane showcase of HotWax’s electrifying live power. The intimate venue — known for close-up, sweaty gigs — was buzzing from start to finish and proved the perfect setting for the band’s raw, visceral sound. Thy played with the kind of composure that suggests they have already outgrown the size of this room.
The trio have long traded in tension: between abrasion and melody, detachment and confession. Live, that push and pull becomes their defining strength. Tallulah Sim-Savage’s voice is both serrated and vulnerable, often beginning a line in near-murmur before allowing it to fray into something rawer, more exposed. She has the watchful stillness of someone entirely in control of the chaos unspooling around her.
The band’s tight, punchy attack and grip on dynamics all but bulldozed its way around the packed Chalk basement. The trio know exactly when to let the energy coil and when to let it snap. You could hear the wider influences—PJ Harvey’s emotional bluntness, ripples of post-punk bite — but HotWax filter it all through a distinctly British, lived-in grit that feels Brighton: restless, sharp, and hungry for impact.
The opening numbers landed with ferocity — distorted riffs cutting through the room while Sayers’ drumming drove forward with muscular precision. Sam’s basslines provided both groove and grit, weaving through the noise with a confidence that anchored the set. Tracks from “Hot Shock” in a perfectly balanced 16-song set sounded bigger and bolder in person — the grit of the record translating into something even more visceral.
The crowd was with them every step of the way—no half-hearted applause, no polite tapping of feet. This wasn’t just a gig, it was an assertion. From Chalk’s tight confines to what’s undoubtedly a larger stage on the horizon; what distinguishes HotWax from many of their peers is their sense of dynamics.
They understand that tension is most effective when it is earned. Several songs build patiently, circling a central riff before detonating into a chorus that feels less like release and more like confrontation. The effect in Chalk’s close quarters was palpable: a mosh pit threatens but never overwhelms.
Setlist
Hard Goodbye
Wanna Be A Doll
Tell Me Everything’s Alright
Strange To be Here
Change My Name
Dress Our Love
Paint It Nice
Treasure
She’s Got A Problem
Drop
In Her Bedroom
Lie There
1000 X
Chip My Teeth For You
Encore
Pharmacy
One More Reason Rip It Out
Both Lola and Tallulah separately disappeared into the crowd during the gig, neither missing a beat as Alfie stayed put behind his huge drum kit.
[A wee apology to Alfie here: There are no photos of him in action from this gig because the place was so full, he was blocked from view on the small stage behind the girls and behind his kit, and I was frustratingly unable to move an inch from the spot I managed to grab at the front of the stage. No “pit” barriers in operation tonight. But he played a blinder. You can see him in the two videos on this page!]
There are echoes here of British guitar lineage – the stark emotional candour of 90s alternative rock, the clipped urgency of post-punk revivalism – yet HotWax resist easy comparison.
Their sound feels less nostalgic than instinctive, rooted in lived experience rather than retro aesthetics. The band play as artists with a clear trajectory. The room may be fairly small, but the ambition is not. It is loud, certainly, but never without shape.
This show was a reminder of HotWax’s rising stature on the UK live scene. Their performance at Chalk proved why they’ve been snapped up for festival slots, major support tours, and packed club dates throughout their “Hot Shock “tour — the band translates studio firepower into a live punch that hits hard and refuses to let up.
By the time they closed out the night, Chalk felt transformed into something much larger than its walls suggest…
HotWax may have started out as teenagers writing songs on the south coast, but they now stand as one of the UK’s most electrifying emerging rock bands — louder, tighter and more self-assured with every mile of the tour van behind them. Brighton didn’t just witness a gig. It witnessed a band in full ascension.
- The support band turned in a very decent shift: and are worth catching live: Jeanie And The White Boys. East London band fronted by Brummie Jeanie Crystal.
Photos & Words by Manja Williams
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