shame

Shame is a five-piece post-punk band from South London that formed in 2014 and came up through the same Brixton scene that produced Black Midi, Black Country New Road, and Squid. Their debut Songs of Praise (2018) landed like a punch—anxious, snarling songs about alienation and English malaise delivered with the intensity of a band that cut their teeth playing every dive bar in London. Frontman Charlie Steen prowls and rants like a young Mark E. Smith if he'd grown up on IDLES and Protomartyr.

Their second album Drunk Tank Pink (2021) pulled back from the fury and got weirder—more textured, more introspective, wrestling with the disorientation of sudden success and constant touring. Food for Worms (2023), produced by Flood, found a middle ground: still raw, but warmer, with songs about friendship and aging that feel earned rather than angsty.

Live, Shame is chaos. Steen throws himself into crowds, the band locks into grooves that build until they collapse, and the energy in the room gets genuinely unpredictable. If you've been curious about the South London post-punk wave but found Black Midi too math-y or BCNR too delicate, Shame is the entry point—more visceral, more immediate, and one of the best live rock bands going right now.