AIRBOURNE + ASOMVEL + AVALANCHE @ ROUNDHOUSE, CAMDEN – 28TH FEBRUARY 2026
Airbourne touch down at London’s iconic Roundhouse as part of their European tour to promote last year’s Gutsy album. As befits an august occasion such as this, they bring two support acts with them.
The first of these is Avalanche, a fellow Australian band who hail from Sydney. This is their first time in the UK. It’s good to see them. They’re led by a married couple: Veronica Campbell on lead guitar and Steven Campbell on vocals and bass, and the band are completed by Blake Poulton on guitar and Bon Lowe on drums.
They rock hard and have recently released their debut album Armed To The Teeth, which judging by what I’m hearing tonight is a pretty mighty piece of work. It sounds like a distillation of the best of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal with, inevitably, a strong flavour of AC/DC. Veronica’s soloing is more than impressive — for the album’s title track she even solos in the audience. Steven tells us that Veronica wrote the song when she was only 16. If you weren’t impressed before, you should be now.
Steven has a superb bass sound — he’s got a real John Entwistle heft to it. Down For The Count is “about being knocked down and getting straight back up again” and features Veronica soloing on her knees. Meanwhile, Blake plays the intro to Ride Or Die from the photographers’ pit. Nobody can say this band aren’t mobile onstage. Seriously though, they come across as fantastically road-hardened, with a cracking album to promote. Worth a look if you get the chance.
Next up are the mighty Asomvel, who I was lucky enough to witness supporting Airbourne at Brighton Concorde last year. As photographer Cris Watkins said at the time, “they look and sound like Motorhead”. Never a truer word said. They may not be doing anything new per se, but by gum they’re good.
Drummer Jason Hope ambles onstage and makes himself comfortable, followed by the rest of the band scampering on as if they’re only just going to make last orders at the pub. Without any further ado they crash straight into King Of The World. Bassist/vocalist Conan looks like a younger Lemmy, and sounds as if he gargles a mixture of gravel and broken glass. Both guitarists solo impressively, and the band cover every inch of the stage — especially Conan during the instrumental passages. Maybe he’s trying to get his 10,000 steps in. Opportunities to exercise must be rare when you’re spending most of the day on a tour bus.
Let it not be said that Asomvel aren’t showmen. They’re more than happy to encourage a degree of audience participation. During Born To Rock ‘n’ Roll Conan gets the audience to yell the title, which they do with gusto. Before If It’s Too Loud, You’re Too Old, Conan asks us if it is too loud. Not for this audience, Conan.
The guitarists and bassist line up at the front of the stage, classic Status Quo style (though they might not necessarily like the comparison). Conan dedicates Your Worst Nightmare to his sister. Guitarists Lenny Robinson and Stel both solo — and dual-guitar line-ups work far better when there isn’t a strict demarcation between rhythm and lead duties. Outside The Law is dedicated to Airbourne, which is a surprise, as they appear to be such well-behaved gentlemen. Set Your World On Fire is a new song and, surprisingly, it’s a bit of a belter — it could almost be a ballad (it isn’t).
Conan asks us if we want some more rock ‘n’ roll. Oh, go on then. We get a crunching version of Luck Is For Losers, followed by another new song, Lone Wolf. If the unreleased material tonight is anything to go by, the next album is going to be absolutely storming. In contrast to Set Your World On Fire, the next newie Take You To Hell is faster and heavier. As Conan puts it, they “turn up the tempo and the heat”. Jason Hope’s drumming is utterly stupendous too.
Final song The Nightmare Ain’t Over is dedicated to their original bassist and vocalist Jay Jay Winter, who was killed in a road accident some years ago. Some wounds never really heal. Conan is briefly in the pit and the song has a classic, crunchingly metallic ending. This has been some performance. The lads have done Jay Jay proud.
If there had been anticipation in advance of Airbourne’s appearance before, it’s at fever pitch now. Clothing and full pints are flying through the air. There are even crowd surfers and the house lights are still up. As the lights go down the atmosphere becomes positively flammable — thankfully the band appear before the venue self-combusts. Although there is the first of a lot of pyro, so it’s a close run thing.
There are more crowd surfers as the band crash into the title track Gutsy. The AC/DC influence seems more prominent than ever, and in Joel O’Keeffe they have a man capable of being Bon Scott and Angus Young simultaneously. That’s underlined by Fat City, where he peels off the first of many coruscating guitar solos tonight.
Joel throws the first of quite a few pints into the audience — a bit like throwing raw meat to lions. I guess the beer rider is super-sized to accommodate this. He also throws in a number of Pete Townshend-style leaps. One could almost think Joel is performing the show on his own, but guitarist Brett Tyrrell, bassist Justin Street and drummer Ryan O’Keeffe are more than pulling their weight.
Hungry is dedicated to “anyone who’s in a band”. This is particularly apt, because anyone trying to make a living from playing music is more than likely to be hungry — though the song’s also about hunger for improvement and success. Joel tells us they have a new album coming out in August, and that they’re already writing the one after that. However, the next song Back In The Game is from 2013’s Black Dog Barking.
Joel gives a speech about lost classic venues such as the Astoria on Charing Cross Road (where I first saw the band in 2008) and how we must fight to keep wonderful venues such as the Roundhouse. He then re-enacts a slice of rock legend as a roadie carries him on his shoulders through the crowd while he solos — just as AC/DC once carried Angus Young. It happens at every Airbourne gig, and long may it continue.
We do get one new song tonight: Alive After Death, accompanied by yet more pyro. As for the rest of the new material, I guess Airbourne are keeping their powder dry.
As the set draws nearer to its close, the gaps between songs get noticeably longer. Whether that’s because the band need a breather (it’s an extraordinarily energetic show) or whether it’s just to raise the tension, I’m not sure — but whatever the reason, it works. There’s a brief drum solo from Ryan before Breakin’ Outta Hell. Joel demands a circle pit and gets one, and it comes with another blast of pyro. There’s an air-raid siren courtesy of Brett prior to Live It Up, while Joel throws pints for members of the audience to catch. Well, everybody needs a hobby.
The band are offstage for such a brief time before the encores that I don’t think most of the audience really clocked they’d gone. Mind you, I don’t think many of them were aware of much else either. Let’s just say the bars have probably done very well tonight and leave it at that.
During Ready To Rock Joel traverses the whole length of the balcony soloing, stopping at one point to shake up a can of beer and empty it over me and the people around me. That must be just coincidence, right. He doesn’t hang around for much longer and is soon back onstage. The band finish with Runnin’ Wild, playing until just shy of the 11pm curfew.
This has been a superb gig, with all three bands turning in superlative sets. There is an elephant in the room in terms of originality however. Whilst this has been enormously enjoyable, there’s nothing new going on here. Asomvel are essentially a 21st-century version of Motörhead, whilst Airbourne are being AC/DC — both bands playing their own original songs whilst being blatantly influenced by the aforementioned artists.
Does this actually matter? I’d say it doesn’t. There are probably a few people in the audience who will have seen AC/DC with Bon Scott, and perhaps a few who saw Motörhead in the late 1970s and early 1980s too. But the majority won’t have. Both bands are more than capable of replicating the thrill of seeing those acts in their heyday, while producing their own original material. What could possibly be wrong with that? More power to them. Maybe even more volume too.
WORDS: Mark Kelly | PHOTOS: Cris Watkins
