Lip Critic

Lip Critic bring their percussive live setup to The Louisiana in Bristol on 29 June 2026. The Brooklyn outfit cuts through with a stage plan that puts percussion up front: two drummers facing each other, patterns colliding and locking, while a roughed-up sampler fires hooks, glitches and bass stabs. After their 2024 Partisan debut Hex Dealer, the band sharpened a strain of experimental songcraft that treats rhythm as the lead voice. Theft World marks the next step, pushing abrasive textures and quick-change structures without smoothing the edges.

On stage, vocals snap between chant and shout, riding the drums like a siren over traffic. Beats pile, break and reassemble; samples warp into new shapes mid-bar; tension comes from repetition suddenly cut short. It’s restless and physical, closer to a basement dance floor than a rock room, yet anchored by motifs that surface and slip away in the churn. The focus is momentum: grooves that tumble forward, drops that land with weight, space that tightens and then opens out. A set built from friction, velocity and a rhythm section that doesn’t let up.