Dead Pony continued their ‘Eat My Dust’ tour with fury as they walked on stage at Mama Roux’s in Birmingham with the lead single from the new album ‘Eat My Dust’. The song has become my favourite song of 2026 so far, and the live performance was just as fantastic. A really great opener to the set.
Dead Pony performed almost every song from their new album which released just over two weeks ago with standouts being ‘Freak Like Me’ and ‘Fury’. Strangely the setlist was quite short, only being 12 songs and could have really done with 2 or 3 more. Not including hits such as ‘MK Nothing’ and ’23, Never Me’ seemed strange and a bit alienating for fans of that older era of Dead Pony which is myself! Anna Shields, the lead vocalist, said “This isn’t the 23, Never Me tour, it’s the Eat My Dust tour” which is understandable; they want to play their new music, but it broke my heart a little not hearing those older hits live considering it was my first time hearing them. Regardless, she had a lot of charisma and a surprising amount of movement considering the size of the stage. The band, in general, brought a lot of intense energy to the crowd, walking on the stage with beers in hand was a sign for a pretty fun time compared to the somewhat subpar support acts, who either weren’t the right genre or just needed some more work on their material.
Initially, I was worried the singing wouldn’t be as clear, as the sound for the supports wasn’t great, but every word and note could be heard with bliss. Anna’s interactions with the crowd were great, seeing her lean over the bars to sing along with the lads and get up close with the shorter girls at the front was really sweet and respectful. Their set didn’t allow for much breathing room, with only 2 songs being on the slower side, which personally I found great as I feel that is when Dead Pony is best, but the venue wasn’t completely suitable for that.
Mama Roux’s has roughly a capacity of 300-350 people, with only the far front door and back doors open, which didn’t allow for a lot of air to come through, especially on a hot day. They really need some air-con as it was the first time I was actually struggling to breathe at one point. The main floor is surprisingly wide, but ultimately just became a huge mosh pit, with only the far right and small balcony upstairs being areas to cool down. If you were in the centre, you were in the pit, which was fun, but after 4 or 5 songs in a row, it was very exhausting. Surprised nobody broke their glasses! I can see why they have the bars at the front of the stage for the protection of the artists.
The crowd was very mixed, from young teens to a lot of older gentlemen (50+), which is interesting and cool that they can bring in such an audience, the only shame was some football fools coming in from the pub nearby.
I don’t think personally the cover of ‘You Oughta Know’ by Alanis Morissette worked either. Anna sang it extremely well, and just like all of Dead Pony covers, I actually prefer their versions, but their ‘Maneater‘ cover got me into the band initially, and I just think it fits them a lot better and would get the crowd singing and moving more.
However, even with some of the shortcomings of the venue, setlist choices and the crowd, Dead Pony are still a fantastic band and a must see. They really make the room go BOOM when they enter, and their experience supporting bands on big stages and playing at festivals such as Slam Dunk really show their experience on how to get a crowd going. I don’t think I’ve gone into a moshpit or moved so much in a gig in a while, and I don’t entirely know the new songs that well either, but I came out of it singing ‘Freak Like Me’ and ‘Lost Inside of Me’ in the car ride back continuously.
Definitely check them out when you can, in Scotland if you can for that homeland experience and cop some merch too. It was reasonably priced and had a retro PlayStation look, pretty cool!
