Cassyette

at Liverpool’s Hanger 34 

With Support From Lozeak & Calva Louise

10/03/23

We’re heading off to Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle to Hangar 34, which is apt because it’s icy, snowy and freezing cold in March. Baltic indeed.

Tonight we’re here to see an all-female singer lineup of nu-metal and emo revivalists. Headliner Cassyette from Essex is a social media star ramping up to 1.2 million TikTok followers and with millions of views and Spotify streams since 2019, recently supporting My Chemical Romance in Milton Keynes. She’s bought potentially the biggest merch booth we’ve ever seen complete with vintage clothing racks.

TikTok gigs have been a tough one for professional photographers, During the pandemic, social media musical artists have risen in numbers, followers and views. As live music came back we’ve experienced a change in gigs where TikTok stars have made the transition from the app to the stage. In the past year in particular we’ve been told to take down photos online (even though we had permission to be there) and had social media teams vetting photos worse than older rock stars. Social media people in the photo pit filming constantly on phones. Since the pandemic things are done differently at some gigs and we’re evolving to fit in with concerts being angled for social media. So far tonight though it’s all good and from following one particular corner on Twitter this past International Women’s Day week it’s nice to see a photo pit full of women photographers!

(Lozeak_Credit: Lucy McLachlan)

First up though is Lozeak, a grunge pop singer-songwriter from Norwich who gained popularity on TikTok during the pandemic. Her first single Word Vomit was released in November 2021 in an Avril Lavigne style with a Katy Perry voice and grungey musical undertones. Her songs describe everyday thoughts, confrontational attitude, telling it like it is.

Before the gig, Lozeak put out shoutouts on her socials for people to learn the lyrics to her songs. The set list was shared and followers were invited to DM her for lyrics should they need them. Well, the crowd really showed up for that. Starting just after 7pm Hangar 34 was already pretty packed out with a lot of the crowd singing along to most of the songs. “Hate Me Too“, “Cutthroat” and latest release “Used To You” were highlights, Lozeak’s voice reminding us of the softer sound of Gwen Stefani’s vocals in her early 2000’s solo era.  

 Up next are Calva Louise, an international trio (with members from Venezuela, France and New Zealand) based in Manchester who have been on the scene for a while now, which really came out in their stage show. Their debut album ‘Rhinoceros‘ came out in 2019 and their concept album ‘Euphoric‘ in 2021 which has seen them sell out gigs all over the UK and EU.

(Calva Louise_Credit: Lucy McLachlan)

Singer Jess Allanic Is a huge force on stage with a big powerful voice. There are some keyboard theatrics which reminds us of a Dream Theater show, a big light-up symbolic set piece which allows Allanic to push away the keyboard when she wants to rock out on guitar.

Calva Louise are a mix of electronica, huge guitar riffs and noisy fuzz bass, complete with Allanic’s almost hardcore-style vocal screaming, there’s a blend of Korn and Linkin Park there. They are an authentic band with their own sound who you can tell have been playing together for a while. Definitely destined for bigger things and bigger venues. The mosh pit for the latest release “Third Class Citizen” appeared to take up most of the floor space. We’d definitely recommend checking these out live, a force to be reckoned with.

Cassyette comes bounding on stage full of energy and we don’t see her stand still for a second for the entire set. Her fans, the Degenerates are fully behind her from the start and the whole venue is buzzing. At one point she asks the crowd to part in half to create a ‘wall of hugs’ which quickly descended into a chaotic mosh pit. After releasing debut album ‘Sad Girl Mixtape‘ at the end of 2022, the set mostly comprised of new material with the crowd seemingly knowing the songs anyway. The newest single “Boom” has the video playing behind her throughout and the visualiser for Petrichor on the big screen features an avatar of Cassyette wielding a big sword around a broken-down car whilst coloured lightning flashes around her. She puts on quite the show.  

(Cassyette_Credit: Lucy McLachlan)

There’s a shoutout to the crowd for the scene being so inclusive, she tells us to keep up being an individual, being queer, colouring your hair bright colours and putting together creative outfits. There is a sense of community in the crowd and is a rare gig where people in attendance are very varied in age and gender which is refreshing when a lot of shows we see lately are attended by older white males.

Cassyette brought a no holds barred energetic gig to Hangar 34, her stage presence is already phenomenal. She’s paving the way for artists to evolve after TikTok fame.

Review and photography by Lucy McLachlan

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