Gig review: Hard Life at Rock City

Words: Katherine Monk-Watts

Photos: Lizzie Jones

Thursday 20 November 2025

reading time: min, words

music live music Rock City

In a room packed-out with loyal East Midlands fans, the newly formed and renamed Hard Life marked their humble but powerful new beginnings. The sold-out Rock City show was the final night of their Onion tour, and the band went out with an absolute bang, proving their fierce return with passion and a palpable vengeance to be heard...

Setting the tone for the evening, the stage was warmed up by fellow Leicester alt-pop band Heart Sauce, who took the stage at 7:30pm. Despite some unfortunate technical difficulties (specifically, a faulty microphone that made their lead singer Ellis quite difficult to hear), the band powered through their opening set, offering silken guitar textured sounds, indie grooves and distinct sonic funk fusions that would be perfect for any listeners of Mac DeMarco or Cage the Elephant.

Next up, Woody was welcomed to the stage at 8:15pm His setlist provided a strong showcase of his latest work, featuring several standout tracks from his latest independent album, Highs, Lows + Stargazing. Despite following similar technical difficulties faced by Heart Sauce, Woody delivered a relatively smooth and well-received performance, using his time on stage to get us all dancing and effectively hyped up for Hard Life’s triumphant return to Rock City.

Hard Life were fashionably late, but as always, they know how to make a dramatic entrance. Excerpts of an interview combined with a repeated chorus of Tears rose from the speakers, causing mutual audience applause and shouting of lyrics. White strobe lighting flashed vigorously in front of us before it stopped to highlight their new band name: 'hard life'

Drummer Oliver Cassidy was the first to swagger on stage; (celebratory bottle raised in hand) then guitarist Lewis Berry, keyboard player Jordan Birtles, as frontman Murray Matravers followed suit, before he officially opened the distinct bars of Tears, the first upbeat track off HL’s namesake tour and recent album Onion. The song is cleverly sampled from Natalie Bergman’s Keep Those Teardrops from Falling and has understandable tongue-in-cheek references to the band being sued by easyGroup over their former name Easy Life. The satirical lyricism is mixed with reflective musings, a touch of remorse, cynicism, the agitation of stark change and the harsh reality of growing up: "My accent’s changed from my native tongue/I drink plant-based milk/It’s a gateway drug/ But there’s no use crying over oat milk/ Seen artists come and go/I’ve got survivor’s guilt”.

(The original track featured the name of a certain entrepreneur who owns the well-known airline company, but it has subsequently been bleeped out to prevent further animosity and controversy. As listeners and music followers we would argue that Hard Life are well within their right to express their frustrations over everything they’ve been through, however also on reflection, it’s probably best not to add more fuel to the relentless commercial corporate fire...)

Their set was a nice eclectic mix of classic Hard Life fan favourites, freshly cut music, humble old-school tracks and nostalgic late 2010s hits; from Life’s a Beach, Maybe in Another Life, Spaceships, Junk Food, Creature Habits, and their latest album Onion, which was released in July this year. The stage lights flashed white, pink, orange, red and blue throughout their performance, matching the band’s bedroom indie pop aesthetic and easy-going but edgy energy.

Murray came into the crowd for a classic HL fan favourite Sunday, bringing both intoxicating charisma and encouragement for as much audience participation as humanly possible; from the shy members tucked away up in the balcony, all the way to the die-hard supporters right at the front, requesting people on partner’s shoulders and everyone to sing along to every single lyric they could recall. They continued with another cherished track Sangria, which features some excellent synth percussion work from Jordan Birtles and Arlo Parks’ dreamy, acclaimed voice.

Murray gave a sweet speech of appreciation for their tour manger Raj, who he urged to come up to the stage, as he excitedly announced that it was his birthday! Raj received a tiara, collective cheers, a loud happy birthday song and a strong voyage of crowd surfing during the duration of playful Y3llow bike. It was the first of a few touching moments and continued raw emotions of the evening. DEAR MISS HOLLOWAY, was lovingly dedicated to lead guitarist Lewis Berry and his dad, who very sadly passed away a few months before the band started the tour. Everyone in the room showed Lewis great love and appreciation for his strength and dedication whilst both grieving and performing in memory of his father.

It was a night of high affection and inviting gratitude all expressed through Hard Life’s magnetic music. Skeletons had us all enthusiastically jumping up and down. Happy hands bopped along to the catchy chorus whilst drummer Olly Cassidy crowd surfed yet again. Then OGRE had phone cameras waving gently in the air and couples clinging together, which transitioned beautifully for another romantic track (and a personal favourite) Ocean View, a popular hit off Hard Life’s debut studio album Life’s a Beach, from back in 2021.

Nightmares always goes down an absolute treat live. Then Murray proceeded to pour his heart out in a moving closing encore of End Credits. Olly threw his drumsticks for fans to catch, before the band took a grand bow and Rock City’s blinding ceiling lights came up to signal the gig was finished. (That felt like a very fitting ending to a brilliant night that crashed us right back down to reality.) Younger audience members and flexible night owls continued their euphoric post-show state by joining and celebrating the band at The Bodega’s Hard Life after party until early hours of the following morning (but for the rest of us it was still a Monday night...)

The final Onion show may be over, but Hard Life’s new journey has only just begun. These beloved Leicester lads never disappoint on a Nottingham stage, and this night was a royal reminder of everything they’ve achieved, overcome these past couple of years and how they’ve evolved together, united as a band. Now they have successfully peeled back and examined all their poignant layers, it’s abundantly clear that Hard Life are ready to let the good times roll ahead.

Hard Life performed at Rock City on 10th November 2025, with support from Heart Sauce and Woody.

@hardlifehardlifehardlife

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