My very first Sleaford Mods show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg – and what very well could be my last due to its impending closure because the landlord has declined to renew its lease to host shows beyond 2026 – was nothing short of amazing! Upon entering the staple in Brooklyn’s indie music scene since 2007, the overall vibe of the intimate, 650-capacity venue was super chill as excited fans filed in shortly after the 7:00 pm doors.
We were all here to see the English post-punk music duo of vocalist Jason Williamson and instrumentalist Andrew Fearn, better known as the Sleaford Mods, on tour supporting their 13th studio album titled The Demise of Planet X (Rough Trade Records).
Formed in 2007 and hailing from Nottingham, the first two legs of their current tour have seen Williamson and Fearn play to audiences in the UK and Ireland (January 13 – May 15) and Australia and New Zealand (April 10 – April 25), with this Brooklyn show on Saturday, May 9 being their second in as many nights, and the first dates of the tour on North American soil.
I had been eagerly awaiting this concert ever since I bought my GA ticket back on January 14, two days before the official release of The Demise of Planet X. The May 8 show on Friday (Night 1) was added shortly thereafter due to the high demand for tickets. Opening both nights in Brooklyn was Dazy, the Richmond, Virginia-based power-punk project of James Goodson. A mash-up of grunge, alt-rock, and Britpop guitar rock, Goodson’s30–minute set featured songs from his Bad Penny EP, a collection of seven tracks he wrote and recorded that was released in October 2025.
At 9:00 pm sharp, Sleaford Mods emerged right before our eyes by way of a short stairwell leading from a backstage door. A minimalist stage design, the show would just be two Brits, a microphone, and a computer set atop a gear cabinet draped with a War Child banner (a UK charity supporting children affected by conflict through music releases, special collaborations, and ticket donations) – and that was more than enough!
The pair of mods – a term coined in the 1960s referring to the youth subculture in the United Kingdom who were fashion-forward with a music focus – immediately commanded the audience’s undivided attention with their self-described style of “electronic munt minimalist punk-hop rants for the working class.” Having never seen Sleaford Mods perform live before, I was completely absorbed by Williamson’s emotional, heartfelt, profanity-laced monologues set to a musical landscape of pounding bass, haunting keyboard riffs, loops of addictive beats, and wafts of sunny guitar chords provided courtesy of Fearn. Stand-out numbers from Saturday night covered themes such as unemployment (“Jobseeker”), low-income survival (“Kebab Spider”), celebrity status (“The Good Life”), and fan favorite “Tied Up in Nottz,” a song about drug use and urban decay in their hometown.
While Fearn danced, grooved, and postured in-place stage right a few feet back, sweat steadily dripping from his face, Williamson’s body never stopped moving either as he spun, jumped, marched, and power-walked across the stage, with a runway model pose thrown in for good measure. The 25-song set featured eleven songs from The Demise of Planet X, with the remaining tracks gifted across eight other albums in Sleaford Mods’ nearly two decade-long discography, ranging from 2007’s The Mekon to 2023’s UK GRIM. Williamson and Fearn also covered the iconic “West End Girls” from 1983 by Pet Shop Boys, fellow synth-pop Brits, as they frequently have during this tour.
The Demise of Planet X tour concludes in the Pacific Northwest on May 23, after which the lads will get a well-deserved break from touring before heading to Victoria, Spain for the Azkena Rock Festival on June 18.
Please sign up to Jason Williamson’s “Monthly Dumps” here if you want to read his words of wisdom regarding topics such as sobriety, find out what book he is reading (currently The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk), or listen to a curated playlist frequently updated with his favorite tracks. You can also witness Williamson’s acting chops as he stars in the 2025 rave-era thriller Game, directed by John Minton.
Check out a live performance of “Gina Was” (The Demise of Planet X) from Night 2:
Setlist: The Unwrap > The Good Life > Megaton > T.C.R. > Dad’s Corner > Shoving the Images > Flood the Zone > I Don’t Rate You > Mork n Mindy > Gina Was > No Touch > UK GRIM > Elitest G.O.A.T > Kebab Spider > Bad Santa > The Demise of Planet X > Bang Someone Out > A Little Ditty > Kill List > Double Diamond > Force 10 From Navarone > West End Girls (Pet Shop Boys cover) > Tied Up in Nottz > Jobseeker > Tweet Tweet Tweet
UPCOMING TOUR DATES
May 12: Toronto, ON @ The Mod Club
May 14: Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda Theatre
May 16: San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
May 17: San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
May 19: Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
May 21: Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile
May 22: Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl
May 23: Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl
Dazy
Sleaford Mods
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