Meryl Streek – Soapbox – Coventry – live review

Sink or Swim present Meryl Streek – Soapbox – Just Dropped In Records – Coventry – 17th September 2025

Political punk rock at the local record shop? Fighting Boredom are well up for this one, there’s a buzz in the brewery as more black clad punk tees-shirted people wander in. I think the show’s sold out, as no one else could fit in the shop I think I’m right. The eagle eyed of you will realise that this review comes a month or so after the event. Things have not been brilliant for Fighting Boredom. I think that’s all I need to say, sometimes life gets in the way. Anyway, read what we thought about the gig below.

I compliment a geezer on his Specials shirt and he answers me in a broad Scots accent and a smile, five minutes later he’s playing bass onstage. Alongside a long haired guitarist with Please don’t shit in my mouth sewn onto the back of his jacket, a tiny but insanely powerful drummer and a skinheaded muscular dude wearing sportswear and looking like he’s going to kill someone. Soapbox are immense. They’ve got hard as nails bass and drums, massive guitars and a simmering hard core groove. The singer is angry, doesn’t stop moving for more than about a tenth of a second and he looks like he’d be handy to have next to you in a dark alley walking towards a bunch of right wing idiots. This is brilliant and they are now shouting ‘OI!’ There’s a bunch of talking between songs but for the life of me I can’t understand more than a word, they look and sound angry but there’s a hell of a lot of grinning and sniggering at each other and all of a sudden the guitarist is in the audience.
Let’s go sideways for a moment as the hardcore rages on, this is a bloody good crowd, a lot of black band shirts, beards, caps and general punkiness. They are mostly getting well into this, dancing, grinning and shouting along, it’s a really good vibe in here.

They call Just Dropped In ‘As cool as fuck!’ and plough into another loud, fast, snotty hardcore romp. There’s a slower bit, then an explosion that repeats over and over. The next one’s called The Fear and it’s fast, ferocious and bouncy and then into blistering hardcore. This locked right in together, a proper punk rock groove. There’s a grinding bit that sees the guitarist back into the middle of the audience.

The singer has got his shirt off, followed by the guitarist, the sound turns slow and burning, then slams again into hard core. Behind them on the projector screen is draped a Soapbox flag next to a Palestinian flag. The band slows down, an intelligent and angry sound, it’s scary and hard. They are reflecting the feeling we’ve all got at the moment, that of daily struggle and fear, this is ace.

They bring to mind the sounds of Dead Kennedys, particularly the guitars, GBH, Minor Threat and especially Black Flag, but that’s not me saying they are old school crusty punks, this is new school reflecting the heroes of old making it their own. They plunge into a hard as nails track, angry and shouting in peoples faces. The next one starts slow and then gets faster and faster as the crowd at the front go bonkers and the singer instigates a mosh pit in the middle of the room. They declare that the next song anti-fascist and say Fuck the IDF and Free Palestine! The song is driven by machine gun drums and a hard bassline, it’s angry to the point of hatred, righteous political anger at the genocide happening right now on our watch. It’s the distilled sound of rage, plain and simple. An excellent support band set, I bloody hope they come back. Great band.

The drummer stretches out as we wait for Meryl Streek, a news reel begins, injustice and poverty in Ireland and the drummer plays over. It gets louder and louder and music is playing now, part of the backing tracks and news layering over itself, Meryl appears onto the stage and it’s straight in hard core political anger. He paces back and forward as he talks. Although talking is an understatement for the way he spits out words looking like he wants to punch someone. He pulls a box over from the side of the stage and stands on it, pointing and gesturing as he rants. The noise is ever present, electronic, guitars, samples and the drums driving it on, it gets louder and softer to let in the samples of news broadcasts and Meryl’s words. I can’t understand what he’s saying in his broad Irish accent but having listened to the records I know he is railing against the injustice over in Ireland and everyone here is backing up his words one hundred percent. The stage lights are switched off one by one as he uses a flashing torch as the only illumination, making the experience even starker. The sound is hard, dark and angry, reflecting his voice, it’s punk as anything I’ve ever heard too. The audience is getting into this, shouting along, moving and generally reflecting back his energy. Stuttering beats and samples lead to fast angry thrashing, the single torch flashes and lights up the chaos as Meryl disappears into the crowd. He’s got so much inside of him, he’s straining to get it out, stood on a box at the edge of the stage with the torch flickering and flashing he talks too fast to make out what he’s saying but the anger, emotion and sheer passion shines out of him. The crowd are surging now and the intelligence and meaning reflects back from them.

It’s far far away from old school punk rock, but it’s got everything. It’s a shame the older Cov punks aren’t around for this, the whole crowd are singing along. There’s a snatch of speech about false apostles and the feeling is anti church. The drummer doesn’t stop, stripped to the waist and dripping with sweat, Meryl started the gig in a hoody but soon sheds it, his mic stand has a bunch of red plastic roses strapped to it, but that too is soon jettisoned for just holding the mic and venting.

All too soon it’s over, leaving a sweaty mass of people. The reason that this gig is so special is that in this age of uncaring bitterness it’s a note of hope, he’s angry because he cares and that makes us care too and with caring comes a spark of hope and sometimes that’s all you need to stand up and argue for what you believe in.

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Meryl Streek