Haken at O2 Forum Kentish Town, London 2024

There are many stereotypes surrounding prog music fans, from the middle aged man with a mancave with audiophile hi-fi equipment who buys back his vinyl after he sold it when CDs took over to the modern day nerd who likes their music as technical as possible. I don’t believe in stereotyping people, but still even I was taken by surprise as I stepped into the Kentish Town Forum on Saturday night.

As I was setting up in the photo pit, I noticed one videographer in a tiger onesie. I thought – odd, but fine. But then I spotted a shark, multiple cats and even some monkeys among the audience. I straight away realised we were not at any other ordinary gig. We were there to celebrate Haken for full 3 hours and the animal onesies were a response to a call to action by the band to dress up to the theme of their recent album ‘Fauna’, which we were about to hear live from start to finish, and the atmosphere was full of giddiness.

Haken started to take to the stage to the sound of ‘The Last Lullaby’ and the moment Ross Jennings erupted onto the stage – the whole auditorium went wild. I have to admit that at that point I was a Haken rookie – they were on my radar, but it was my first time seeing them live and the sea of band merch behind me, some of which you could date back to the band’s beginnings, showed how loved and revered they are. It is also quite rare to keep the audience’s full attention for 2 whole sets!

The ‘Fauna’ portion of the evening opened with the djent riffs and syncopated verses of ‘Taurus’ and we were sent off exploring the animal kingdom painted with music. The album’s first single ‘Nightingale’ followed with its theme inspired by Hans Christian Andersen and became an incredible showcase of Peter Jones’s skills on the keys. ‘The Alphabet Of Me’ is quickly becoming one of my favourite Haken tracks (‘Fauna’ has been stuck in my head ever since), the minimal, groovy electro intro quickly lead to the thunderous and quintessentially prog chorus. This song also introduced one of the special guests mentioned on the event listing and we were treated to an appearance by trumpet solo by Miguel Gorodi.

The journey through the world of ‘Fauna’ continued to delivered juicy prog deliciousness, seamlessly weaving elements of metal, math rock, djent and even indie-pop, with influences ranging from Dream Theatre (‘Beneath The Rainbow’ being a standout in that department) to Gojira and Mr Bungle. ‘Lovebite’, the fourth single from the album, is another favourite of mine – there’s an underlying optimistic synth melody running through the track, which provides a great juxtaposition to the lyrics about a relationship going south. Soon we were invited to take a break and return invigorated for part 2 of the evening.

‘Fauna’ from start to finish was a tough act to follow, but the ‘greatest hits’ portion of the night was just a treat. Starting with ‘Puzzle Box’ from the album ‘Vector’ from 2018, Haken took us through the band’s full history, making sure to touch on the fan favourites like ‘The Cockroach King’ from their seminal album ‘The Mountain’ and ‘Canary Yellow’ from 2020’s ‘Virus’- probably not incidentally animal-themed! The night finished with an encore in the shape of ‘Visions’, a thunderous, orchestral, quintessentially prog – simply a perfect close to an already excellent eveni