With more than half of the dates on the European leg of her "Constantly Nowhere" tour having sold out well in advance, it may come as a surprise to some that Poppy - supported by Fox Lake and Ocean Grove - is unable to pull off the same feat in Sweden's capital Stockholm. As I have mentioned elsewhere, despite having one of the highest concentrations of rock and metal bands per capita in the world, those very genres are currently less than fashionable in Scandinavia's largest country. As a result, the balcony at "Fållan" remains closed tonight, while a second, draped drum kit towers majestically above the stage on an elevated platform, unmistakably signalling that this tour is a larger-scale production.
The canned music, featuring tracks like Joey Valence & Brae's
"THE BADDEST", and a severely warped cymbal in the drum kit
already foreshadow what's to come from tonight's opening act, Fox
Lake, before they enter the stage amid loud cheers from the crowd.
Founded in 2017 in Denver, in the US state of Colorado, the quartet's
sound is often described as a mix of hardcore, hip-hop, nu metal and
metalcore. Judging from tonight's performance, I'd say that Fox Lake
primarily sound like hardcore with hip-hop influences, and especially
the former, with its aggression, shouts, screams and barked vocals,
alongside the frequent use of the F-word and raised middle fingers,
is definitely not my cup of tea. It never has been.
Despite a musically rather samey set, Fox Lake do deliver an
energetic show with strong crowd interaction. They effortlessly get
the audience to cheer and clap along, and their repeated requests for
circle pits are instantly fulfilled (Fox Lake frontman Nathan
Johnson: "Get in the middle, make some friends and run in a
circle."). Between songs like "Cold Hard Truth", "Real
Fast" and "Freestyle", Nathan Johnson explains that he
is somewhat limited in his movement due to a bicycle accident: "I
can't jump around. I can't dance. I probably broke my ankle. I don't
give a shit." He later adds that, "injured and all",
he can be met at the merchandise booth after the shows wrap up: "I'd
love to meet you all!" And as we will see later on, many
attendees are more than happy to take him up on that offer.
After a short changeover, particularly around the drum kit, the stage
is bathed in blue light and Ocean Grove's "OG
FOREVER" starts to play. The crowd cheers as the quartet
enters the stage and kicks off their set with "CELL
DIVISION": "It's the rhythm, it's
the sound, of the Oddworld underground." This
opening sequence of "OG FOREVER" and "CELL DIVISION"
comes across more powerful live than on their current fourth studio
album "Oddworld", with Ocean Grove also taking the energy
level up a few notches, which is impressive given that Fox Lake had
already set a high bar in that department. Ocean Grove
frontman Dale Tanner repeatedly encourages the
audience to "jump, jump, jump,
jump" while doing so himself, partly
from the stage risers. The most impressive moment, however, comes
when Dale Tanner and bassist / vocalist Brent
"Twiggy" Hunter sing the chorus for the first time ("Take
out. The part of me I hate out. I just wanna break out. All I wanna
do is say, 'How?'"). This is the melodic aspect that I
missed in Fox Lake's set. Think of 1990s and 2000s nu metal, with
vocal styles reminiscent of Jonathan Davis
(Korn) and Brandon Boyd (Incubus).
Despite their name, Ocean Grove are not from the
coastal town of the same name in Australia, but from the country's
second biggest city, Melbourne. Since their formation in 2010, Ocean
Grove have undergone several line-up changes, with the band now
consisting of Dale Tanner, Twiggy Hunter and drummer / producer /
guitarist Sam Bassal as its core trio. Dale Tanner is Ocean Grove's
only remaining founding member and has been their frontman since
2019, following Luke Holmes' decision to become a studio-only member,
which is why they refer to themselves as the "Oddworld
Collective" or "OG Collective".
The setlist is dominated by songs from "Oddworld" ("NO
OFFENCE DETECTED", "MY DISASTER", "FLY AWAY")
and their second studio album "Flip Phone Fantasy"
("SUPERSTAR", "SUNNY", "GUYS FROM THE
GORD"), while surprisingly omitting any material from the studio
album in between, "Up In The Air Forever".
The ballad "LAST DANCE" is accompanied by a sea of smartphone flashlights in the audience. For "RAINDROP", Dale Tanner and Twiggy Hunter switch roles, with Dale Tanner moving to bass and Twiggy Hunter taking over the microphone. Afterwards, Dale Tanner, who up to this point has been wearing a beige-and-black Nike Air tracksuit, takes off his jacket, revealing a black tank top, while the audience indulges in circle pits, walls of death and even crowd surfing. At times, it is hard to believe that Ocean Grove aren't the headliner tonight, but, yes, there is still one more act to come, and after saying that "it has been a dream come true" to be part of this tour, Dale Tanner asks the crowd to "please make some noise for the queen of metal, the one and only Poppy!" "The queen of metal"? When exactly did Doro Pesch, the Queen of Metal for decades, pass on that crown? Be that as it may, after the concluding "JUNKIE$", not only do Ocean Grove leave the stage, but some attendees also leave the front row. A clear sign that some people here tonight had, in fact, come primarily for Ocean Grove.
With Poppy's set approaching, the drum kit on the elevated platform is unveiled, while the security guards in front of the stage start to supply the crowd with water. Once again, the well-attended "Fållan" is bathed in blue light before the set opens with a prologue (a pre-recorded narration, of which we will hear more throughout the show), followed by "Bruised Sky". Dressed in a striking white gothic lolita outfit and accompanied by four masked instrumentalists and occasional plumes of fog shooting up from the stage, Poppy screams and sings her heart out from the very beginning. Although it is always technically impressive to hear a woman deliver vocals like this - from metalcore-style screams to guttural growls - it is also the element of her music that resonates with me the least. That is not the only reason why it takes me a little while to warm up to the show, though. Amongst other things, the security guards start stopping attendees from photographing Poppy with compact digital cameras (not bulky professional cameras, for which a photo pass would naturally be required), while smartphone photography and filming remain permitted throughout the set. It feels rather inconsistent, almost arbitrary. At the same time, only one or two photographers are visible in the photo pit throughout the evening, which makes one wonder whether access to photo passes was similarly restricted, or whether interest from the Swedish media was really that low.
After "Bruised Sky" and "BLOODMONEY" (with its rap-like chorus, "Beg for forgiveness from Jesus the Christ"), "Scary Mask" is where the performance starts to draw me in, more precisely when Poppy, holding a mask, addresses the crowd for the first time: "Get up! I wanna see you jump!"
Poppy (formerly That Poppy, real name Moriah Rose Pereira) is something of a phenomenon, catering to different genres and audiences at the same time: The aforementioned aggression and heaviness of metal on the one hand and catchy pop hooks on the other, all while maintaining a princess-like, cute persona that seems happiest when the crowd fulfills her requests for circle pits ("Lovely to see you here tonight. I'm gonna need something from you. I'm gonna need to see a circle pit [...]. Can you do that for me? I said, 'Can you do that for me?' Well, alright, get to it.", before adding, more demandingly, "I said the whole floor!").
From very young girls admiring her to tough-looking seasoned metal
guys, Poppy's blend of different musical styles and scenes is also
clearly visible in the audience tonight. These days, this kind of
diversity is arguably one of the few ways for an artist to build a
career outside the underground. It would, however, be interesting to
know whether the majority of Poppy fans love her output
unconditionally or whether, like myself, they are drawn to certain
genres across her catalogue.
The performance of "Concrete", whose sound is strongly reminiscent of BABYMETAL, marks the first standout moment in the set. During "Anything Like Me", with Poppy's clear vocals taking centre stage, she briefly dances in sync with guitarist Alexa Lynn. The surprising highlight of the set, though, is "crystallized" - a pure synth-pop track, further elevated by a crowd enthusiastically singing along to lines like "I don't wanna die". Another standout is "V.A.N", in its studio version a collaboration with her fellow Americans Bad Omens.
It isn't until the second-to-last song, "they're all around us", that I realise why it took me so long to warm up to Poppy's set. It is the contrast with the two preceding bands, who come across as more spontaneous, whereas the headliner feels more choreographed and distant. Poppy only begins to interact directly with the audience while introducing "they're all around us", when she says: "This is the second-to-last show of this tour. We've seen some things. I could tell you who had the best... ones, and who had the worst ones. I don't think you wanna make that list. The bad list." She then echoes the words of a male fan: "The naughty list."
Choreographed or not, this is a metal show. The circle pit at the beginning of "they're all around us" is met with Poppy's approving "Beautiful!", and during the encore "new way out", there is even crowd surfing and a wall of death. Some of the very young girls in the audience already seemed somewhat alienated by the recurring ritual of the circle pits. At the same time, however, it has to be acknowledged that anyone wondering where the next generation of the subcultural scenes is coming from will, amongst other places, find it at a Poppy concert.
After the final note has faded, the action moves seamlessly to the merchandise booth, with one of the longest and most crowded queues we have ever seen at a show like this, watched over by remarkably patient security guards. By the time it is our turn, half of Fox Lake's line-up is present, and bassist Zachary "Zach" Swafford tells us that Fox Lake will be back in Europe in October 2026, supporting Alpha Wolf alongside PSYCHO-FRAME and Diamond Construct. While we did not expect to find Poppy at the merch table - after all, even the VIP tickets apparently did not include a meet-and-greet, but rather "hand-signed" items and "crowd-free, early access to merch shopping" - Ocean Grove's absence is nevertheless somewhat surprising. After more than a month on the road, the final and completely sold-out show of the European leg of the "Constantly Nowhere" tour will take place the day after tomorrow in Finland's capital Helsinki.
Author: Stefanie Nysand
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