The Georgia mathcore rockers carry on the party to Manchester’s Rebellion as part of their first full U.K headline tour, bringing along Love Rarely and Knives for the ride.
It’s been a wild ride for the Callous Daoboys, starting way back in 2017 with the release of their debut EP ‘My Dixie Wrecked’. Fast-forward to 2026, and the band are riding the wave of their third studio album ‘I Don’t Want to See You in Heaven’, encapsulating the chaos and noise of their sound into their most considered outcome yet. This UK tour is the victory lap, parading sold-out shows and inviting emerging UK metal talent Love Rarely and Knives for a tour celebrating noise music in all its forms.
The excitement is palpable, under a moonlit Deansgate, an eager line snakes outside the unassuming Rebellion. Nestled under the crook of Deansgate train station, a pulsating hum reverberates through the walls as the audience leans against it, t-shirts proudly on show and tickets in hand (or phones). It seems only right that the Callous Daoboys play here, after a hasty upgrade from the Deaf Institute, in a venue that has become a staple in the U.K’s grassroots metal and alternative scenes, welcoming noise of all iterations and a regular fixture in Manchester Punk Fest. As we squeeze into the fluorescent corners of the venue, a disco ball glitters overhead, catching the various vibrant shades of hair dye amongst the crowd.
Despite the early slot and ever-growing line, there is a sizeable cluster for Love Rarely, the Leeds-based mathcore outfit that has built a steady reputation over their relatively small lifespan from the band’s advent in 2023. In some ways, the odds seem stacked against them with the queue still winding down and vocalist Courtney Levitt declaring the whole band has the flu, but incredibly, they power through, delivering a set that is punchy and abrasive. Love Rarely is math rock on steroids, the amps turned all the way up, from the two-stepping chorus of ‘Mould’ to the Paramore-esque funk guitars of ‘Will’. Final track ‘Entropy’ is the crowning moment, an assault on the senses: green strobes stripe the vision, the bass drum thuds on your chest whilst the ferocity of Levitt’s vocals explodes across the room.
Next up is Knives, who enter the stage in glaring lights and glitching sounds, as if emerging from the matrix. Again, this is another band that also seems to have an unfortunate bout of luck, after lead vocalist Jay Schottlander tells the crowd that their touring van is currently stranded on a motorway an hour away. But this hasn’t dampened the band’s spirits, the five-piece bringing an infectious energy and nu-metal attitude that gets the crowd bouncing as if on instinct. The band fuses nu-metal and hardcore with a post-punk spirit, the saxophone wandering through some tracks and acting almost as a lead guitar in others, creating a siren-like sound that pierces through the driving riffs. Halfway through the set, the crowd splits in half with the simple gesture of a hand and the promise of a breakdown. Despite the sheer power behind Knives, there is also a warmth to them: Schottlander asks the band to play as he doesn’t like talking to the audience, a fact that feels almost incredulous after the growls and energy he’d been channelling mere moments ago. Watching Knives feels almost like you’re watching old friends play at a house party (albeit a very polished house party), the only difference this time being you want to go to the afters.
Finally, slightly earlier than promised, The Callous Daoboys emerge, the crowd nicely limbered up after two energetic sets. In the transition between Knives and their set, lead vocalist Carson Pace lost two successive rounds of rock-paper-scissors to an audience member, so the set is his last chance to rebuild his reputation. And you could say he does that, opening the set with a new album favourite ‘Full Moon Guidance’, leaning over into the audience who scream the words back eagerly.
Watching The Callous Daoboys is a bit like pressing shuffle on a mixtape, the group blisters through genres: fusing nu-metal, hardcore, dance, pop-punk and at some points pure sugar sweet pop to an amalgamation that shouldn’t work but somehow does, at a moment’s notice switching it up as the audience dares to take a drag of air.
In ‘Idiot Temptation Force’, the first crowd-surfer pops up, starting up a trend as slightly less daring audience members follow suit. There’s a beautiful sense of inclusivity to a The Callous Daoboys show, the stage is eagerly shared with the audience, who take turns hopping on and off. At one point, a girl soars above the audience majestically, pink hair glinting in the glow of the disco ball, before she runs excitedly off stage to grab her best friend, two girls twirling to the swirl of noise behind them.
There’s also a sense of joy and humour amongst it all, technical difficulties are smoothed out as Pace jibes about fellow post-hardcore group Holding Absence, asking the crowd if there are any “normies in the crowd”, jokingly taking a soft aim at Turnstile along the way (which I couldn’t help but take a little personally). But it’s all fun and games; the gratitude for this current leg of shows is clear to see, and importantly, there is a sense of community, with the band imploring the crowd to support Knives after their tour van tragedy. On that note, Schottlander pops back up to join the Caoboys for ‘Tears on Lambo Leather’, growling through and leaning into the crowd menacingly, just as fellow bandmate, saxophonist Tegan O’Connor, rides the wave of the crowd onto the stage.
At the beginning of the night, a sweet scent of incense trickles around Rebellion, the occasional snatches of people’s perfume peppered about. At the end of the night, that scent is all but disappeared, drowned out by perspiration, sweat sliding slick down foreheads and breeding in crevices you didn’t know could sweat. After a blistering encore, the crowd take their chance to breathe as the band holds their instruments in triumph, the last remnants of the show, the buzz of the feedback swimming in your drink.
Kaitlyn Brockley
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Images: Jack Walsh
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