CKY and Puppy at The Underworld, London - live review

PUPPY [8] are earning a rep as a trio who can win over any room. Only a few weeks after supporting Creeper, they have the Underworld headbanging to their fusion of hulking metal and Smashing Pumpkins-esque fuzz. And this ain’t an easy crowd. Pennsylvania alt-rockers CKY [8] are known for their ardent following. Tonight is the second of two sold-out shows and bodies, raring to go completely nuts, are packed into every available space. Fifteen years on, party anthems from their swansong, Infiltrate.Destroy.Rebuild, are as difficult to pin down as ever, touching on nu metal, pop-punk and retro-rock. Songs like 96 Quite Bitter Beings and Flesh Into Gear, that once soundtracked Jackass and Bam Margera’s skate-prank videos, cause mayhem. And when Bam actually appears for a cover of GG Allin’s Bite It You Scum, most of the ecstatic crowd look like they’re having their youth replayed right in front of them. “Tonight is a celebration,” grins frontman Chad I Ginsburg and he’s right. The ever-youthful exuberance of CKY endures.