Skunk Anansie at The Water Rats

Skunk Anansie at The Water Rats, London — 2026-05-17

For one night, Skunk Anansie went back to being S.C.A.M again.

For one night, Skunk Anansie went back to being S.C.A.M again.

Just an Instagram post, no arena production, just a secret show at The Water Rats for a couple hundred people lucky enough to get through the doors of one of London’s most historic venues. You walked in to the smell of fish and chips, a handful of people quietly finishing Sunday evening pints, and a woman casually pointing people through to the back room like this wasn’t about to be one of the most surreal gigs London would see all year. The Water Rats has hosted everyone from Bob Dylan to Oasis over the years, and for Skunk Anansie, it has its own history too.

Long before the bigger tours and festival appearances, this was one of the rooms where the band played their first gigs. It was also where they returned under the S.C.A.M name in 2009 to announce their reunion after years apart. Now, with another huge summer ahead of them, including a joint UK tour with Garbage, they were back again.

Support came from Grove, whose mix of industrial bass and electronic production felt like a perfect fit for the night. Their set brought a raw intensity early on and won the crowd over fast.

The whole thing had this strange atmosphere before they’d even walked on stage. Everyone obviously knew who they were there to see, but there was still something unreal about watching a band with that kind of history walk into a tiny 200-cap venue where the ceiling practically drips onto you by the end of the night. The kind of gig where you keep having little “is this actually happening?” moments.

Then they hit the stage and the room just detonated. Opening with This Means War felt like being thrown straight into the deep end. This was loud. Not arena loud where sound disappears into space, but proper venue loud, where the drums shake through the floorboards and every guitar feels like it’s hitting you in the chest. Charlie Big Potato sounded enormous in a room that size, while Because of You and God Loves Only You pushed the intensity even further. Shame sounded furious and sharp, Skin completely locked into every line. Weak felt massive in that room, Hedonism somehow hit harder without the distance that arena shows create, and Animal was pure chaos in the best possible way.

And at the centre of all of it was Skin. Relentless from start to finish. Thirty years on and she still performs like someone with everything to prove, stalking across the stage one minute and launching herself into the crowd the next. There’s still something genuinely dangerous about her live presence, like she’s operating on instinct rather than structure and the rest of the room is just trying to keep up with her. At one point, she was crowd surfing across a room full of people old enough to be discussing lower back pain, which somehow made it even better. Half the crowd looked equally thrilled and terrified.

What stood out most, though, was how natural they looked back in a venue like that. It never felt like a stadium band playing small for novelty value. It felt like they slipped straight back into the environment they came from. Loud, loose and slightly unpredictable.

Big room or small, Skin owned it. At one point she was reminiscing about the first time they played there, moments later slipping into a baby voice and introducing the band like they were some terrible Skunk Anansie cover band. “I’m Skint… this is Cas…uh Casper…” absolutely killed the room. The back-and-forth between Skin and the rest of the band all night made everything feel loose and spontaneous too. Before one song, she joked that she was nervous about hitting the notes, only for Cass to fire back that the “real” Skin would have been able to do it, which got one of the biggest laughs of the night. At one point, she stood right up against the front row and said she felt so close to everyone tonight, paused, laughed and added “not really” before launching into the next song.

That mix of humour, nostalgia and complete intensity made the whole night feel special. At one point, Skin disappeared from the stage entirely and suddenly reappeared in the middle of the crowd, singing and jumping with everyone around her as the whole room bounced in sync. The energy in there felt far too big for a venue that size.

Even the newer songs felt massive in that setting. An Artist Is An Artist slotted perfectly into the set because the attitude behind it still feels exactly like the band people fell in love with in the first place. Angry, theatrical, funny, emotional and completely themselves without compromise. Twisted (Everyday Hurts) and I Can Dream sounded huge, while Little Baby Swastikkka brought back some of that sharp-edged fury that has always made Skunk Anansie feel dangerous compared to so many of their peers.

The encore somehow pushed things even further. Lost and Found brought a brief moment to breathe before You’ll Follow Me Down turned into one of the biggest moments of the night. Tear the Place Up, closing the night felt appropriate, really. There was no calmer way this was ever going to end.

The best thing about the night was that it never felt over-rehearsed or polished. There were little moments of chaos, jokes between songs, Skin chatting away, people packed together right up against the stage, even Skin reminding Cass to swap guitars before the next song, and that’s exactly why it worked. Nothing about it felt manufactured.

By the end the room felt completely spent. The floor sticky with spilled drinks, everyone overheated, ears ringing, people still looking slightly stunned trying to process what they’d just seen. A tiny venue somehow trying to recover from a gig far too big for it.

Setlist

This Means War / Charlie Big Potato / Because of You / An Artist Is An Artist / God Loves Only You / Shame / Hedonism (Just Because You Feel Good) / Cheers / Twisted (Everyday Hurts) / Weak / Animal / I Can Dream / Little Baby Swastikkka

Encore

Lost and Found / You’ll Follow Me Down / Tear the Place Up