a-tota-so head to home turf as they celebrate the release of their latest album, I Told You So.

All live photography courtesy of Rae Dowling Photograpy; you can find more of her great work on her website.

BUTTONPUSHER

There are gig posters, and then there are gig posters featuring a screaming two-headed sloth hurling itself across a backdrop of rust-orange bars. Buttonpusher know exactly how to set a tone, and on a Friday night at The Carousel that tone was clear before a note was struck: loud, knotty, slightly unhinged, and open to everyone.

The all-ages, safe-space billing is not window dressing either. It is the kind of ethos that keeps grassroots heavy music alive, and at a tenner in advance for three bands pulling in three very different directions, the value was hard to argue with for a night that packed from the outset.

INNER DOG

First up, Inner Dog, and it’s worth pausing on just how new this London outfit is. Formed only last year, they have built their name on a small run of singles, Bears Eat Honey, Truths and Smoke Mirror, and have been road-testing that material across the UK and Europe this month. On record, the reference points sit somewhere around Gouge Away, METZ and Mannequin Pussy: serrated guitars, a rhythm section that drives rather than decorates, and vocals that sound like they’re being wrung out of the body rather than sung.

What matters for a band this early in their life is whether the conviction survives contact with a crowd who, for the most part, may have heard them before; they completely won the attendees over. If this is where they are after barely a year, the next twelve months should be very interesting indeed.

POPTONES

If Inner Dog were all forward momentum, Poptones were a different animal entirely. The Copenhagen trio of Mads Bertelsen on bass and vocals, Simon Hiemstra on guitar and Anders Poulsen on drums have played together since their school days on Denmark’s rural west coast, and that shared history is audible. Their sound was later sharpened at the city’s Rhythmic Music Conservatory, which goes some way to explaining why ‘Copenhagen alt rock’ on the poster undersells them somewhat.

Their 2025 album Pure is a restless record, pulling at prog, noise rock, hardcore and post-metal, and dressing the core trio in saxophone, vibraphone, and lap steel. The obvious question going in was how that expansive palette translates when it’s just three people on a Nottingham stage. The band themselves have admitted they hear more parts than they can physically play, which makes the live show a test of what they choose to keep and what they choose to let go.

Say Something Now is a good example of the band’s approach: its chorus grew out of an improvisation game built on UNO cards, with each colour dictating how the players behave. It sounds like a gimmick on paper, but the band executed this with precision.

A-TOTA-SO

Topping the bill, a-tota-so, billed as post-math hardcore and describing themselves elsewhere as noisy math rock with a grunge streak. Formed in 2016 by musicians returning from hiatus in previous bands, Alright The Captain among them, they trade in exactly the kind of dynamic whiplash that makes math-leaning heavy music so thrilling live: fragile, near-silent passages dropping without warning into riffs heavy enough to rattle the fittings.

Headlining a bill this varied is its own challenge. Not only that, but an album launch tour. After Inner Dog’s directness and Poptones’ sprawl, the closers needed to pull the threads together. There’s a strong case that math-hardcore is precisely the right glue: it shares Inner Dog’s aggression and Poptones’ love of structural mischief. With a new album I Told You So (our review here), which has very widely and universally praised a-tota-so play their new material as if it is something they’ve been playing for years.

A CONTINUING TRADTION

a-tota-so also continue their tradition of having guest vocalists join them at various points. By the end of night that total got to well over a hundred overall which shows the deep connection and adoration people have for this band. Grins from ear to ear from both band and audience was a wonderful thing to experience and I feel privileged to have been part of such a special evening.

Nights like this are the backbone of the UK’s heavy underground. Three bands, three distinct approaches one intimate venue, and a promoter clearly more interested in curation than safe bets. Buttonpusher have form for this kind of bill. On this evidence, the sloth was well earned.

a-tota-so: Facebook

Poptones: Facebook

Inner Dog : Website

bUTTONpUSHER : Website

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