Welcome to Box Wine Boxnanza! Celebrating Box Wine’s 1st Anniversary 

Last Saturday saw the first anniversary of garage rock four-piece Box Wine, and coinciding with the celebration was the release of their newest and hottest single, ‘The Fool’. After experiencing the high calibre of talent from their previous single ‘Useless’, hosted as part of record label Little Punks Vol. 1 compilation, they set the bar for new music very high. But now it’s even higher. This track explores the idea of not putting all your trust in the wrong people, or they will make you look the fool in the end. It kicks off with a swaggering in-your-face guitar riff and crashing drums before singer Chloe’s hypnotic vocals go head-to-head with a heartbeat rhythmic drum beat in the verses. There’s a rapid increase in tempo in the chorus with a huge wall of sound reminiscent of early 2000s American pop punk riffs. In the bridge before the final instrumental, the sudden glitching in sound makes you stop before you have to carry on nodding your head to that blustering outro.

Boxnanza brought the party to the Eagle Inn in Salford for an intimate affair with support from fellow Manchester punk bands Ancient Good Stuff and Woke Nonsense, all under the incredible Little Punk Records. Little Punk Records have been a foundation for so many bands in the punk scene to grow and prosper and Boxnanza is another example of the success they have had so far. 

Ancient Good Stuff kicked off the bash with reverberating basslines and striking drums. Set against sparkling lights as a backdrop in a small, sweaty box room, they commanded the room as a drum and bass duo, and no guitars were involved. This set featured a lot of brand-new tunes making their live debut with official releases coming later this year for ‘The Bigots’ in May and ‘PTSD’ & ‘Lies’ being released as part of AGS’ sophomore E.P. coming out this August. ‘Lies’ featured a more prominent vocal role from drummer Gustavo and frontwoman Angie getting into the crowd to flawlessly play rapid bass chord changes and dance with crowd members. Angie conveyed anger, despair and frustration but also hope through sung rants, shaking vocals of despair and socially awkward love. They closed their set with their short and sweet anthem ‘Favourite Worst Nightmare’ with a quick-witted chorus and laughter syncing up with the drums.

Rather than opening with an instrumental walk-on, Woke Nonsense opted to start with a mini skit where singer Heidi needed saving from being trapped in a cage or else they couldn’t perform! Luckily, they were able to free Heidi, whose vocals swept throughout the room with such impressive range from softer Evanescence vocals to screams of pain and anguish. Another feature from the compilation was their track ‘Happy Little Life’ with shaking vocals and the crowd all screaming to the guitar riffs. The defining moment of the set had to be the insane metal riff from lead guitarist Cat in their track ‘Gorgeous’, vocals that deserve a bigger stage and a bridge that felt very Scorpions-esque. 

Bringing the sass and impressive levels of head-banging, Box Wine came out to continue the celebrations, met with screams from the crowd. With exciting chord progressions and thrashing drums, they powered through short and sweet tracks which shook the whole room. Opening the set with ‘New Age’ featuring hardcore emo riffs and gliding vocals, they got the room pumping instantly. Box Wine are making waves with both released and unreleased tracks because they are that exciting. The crowd are already memorising how the unreleased tracks go because during ‘Wildfire’, they cheered in between every drum pause before singing the chord progression in unison. 

Box Wine should really consider writing music for films in the future because the way they performed ‘Waste Of Space’ with such a thrilling rhythmic line, it felt like it could be included in a build-up scene to a big battle! With an immediate switch up to a moodier vibe came ‘Take It’ with singer Chloe’s ghostly vocals, overarching distorted basslines. A standout moment for me was the drum cymbals being played with softer drumsticks in the bridge to create tension before an epic vocal/ drum joint build-up to the final outro as Chloe reached incredible vocal heights. 

Also featured on the Little Punk Records compilation, they played their contribution ‘Useless’ with guest starring vocals from Willow out of Humongous Fungus. This was a brilliant rendition with Chloe’s smoother vocals blending with Willow’s scratchier, more screamo-style and drumbeats that felt like explosions with each hit. The newest single ‘The Fool’ made its live debut as part of commemorating the first anniversary, which everyone went crazy for, perfectly matching every change in tempo. Would a party be a party without balloons? Little Punks clearly thought so as balloons flooded down from the balcony during ‘Fall For It’ as Chloe got everyone to clap in the bridge. This was the most memorable part of the night with thrash metal guitar riffs and a dominant bassline. Box Wine played their next two songs, ‘Around’ and ‘Stray’, with the crowd keeping the balloons up in the air until the end. 

‘Stray’ was meant to be the final song, but as one final victory lap, they played ‘The Fool’ again, which the crowd had been begging for since it was played the first time. This felt like the most appropriate end to the set and deservedly so because ‘The Fool’ perfectly encapsulates how Box Wine are upping the levels. The balloons were still flying as everyone moshed together until the end, and what a way to celebrate the anniversary. Happy one year to Box Wine!

Words by Ruby Macklin