Drowning Pool, Rock City, Nottingham, 19/11/2025

Last time Gigraphy attended a Drowning Pool show, we talked about shows that are labelled as once in a lifetime lineups. But tonight, in the heart of Nottingham, Drowning Pool have done the double for 2025, compiling a Hall of Fame level tour with (Hed)PE and Spineshank. Drowning Pool return as conquering heroes to headline the city for the first time in 12 and a half years, having last played in the Rescue Rooms back in 2013. Every metric of nostalgia, adrenaline, smoke and sweat was on show on a Wednesday night, here is how things went down.

(Hed)PE

Opening the night were the ever-unpredictable (Hed)PE, marking a year almost to the exact date of their last Nottingham appearance. There is a slight hiccup with the band’s intro track where the sound tech fades it out early, which Jared Gomes corrects for it to be left playing until the band eventually comes in with 2023’s ‘No Way Out’ and ‘Rat Race’ from Detox. The trademark mix of punk snarl and hip hop swagger is a lively starter gun for the evening, and inspires a pit in the middle to ‘Peer Pressure’ from Back To Base X

(Hed)PE has always been a melting pot, but tonight they leaned hard into the heavier side, with even Jared’s rapped vocals in ‘Killing Time’ being a bit more gravelly and growl-like. After ‘I Got You’, he acknowledges the love in the room with how often the band have visited the UK late in the year, with this being their 4th consecutive winter tour in this brisk nation. The energy the band inspired in the middle of the floor during the appropriately titled ‘Raise Hell’ from Only In Amerika did plenty to warm the room up despite the frosty outside, with the track having new life breathed into it since their re-recording of it, before then providing the ultimate throwback with a cover of The Wailers ‘Get Up, Stand Up’, before a riveting final 3 that rounded out the set with ‘Let’s Ride’, ‘Bartender’ and then finally ‘Renegade’ as the sole track from 2009’s New World Orphans.

Spineshank

For a band the UK has not seen nearly enough of in the past decade, Spineshank stepped out onto the stage to an absolute roar. They flip the script, beginning the set with track 3 from the Height of Callousness album, but from the opening notes of ‘Synthetic’ , Nottingham had been waiting a long time for this. The set promised the album in full to celebrate 25 years since its release, so the back to back playings of ‘Asthmatic’ and ‘(Can’t Be) Fixed’ are expected, and just means the album will be “Callousness Rejigged”. Frontman Jonny Santos is like a maestro for the crowds energy, and the simplicity that pits formed with to (Hed)PE is only amplified for Spineshank.

Santos takes a moment to thank the UK for their insane love for an act that has been away for so long. So long in fact that they now have drummer Tommy Decker’s son playing guitar for them. The crowd give a chant to Tommy Decker Jr. who is still in his first year with the band, but fits in like furniture as they move into ‘Cyanide 2000’, ‘Play God’ & ‘Seamless’. The band play with quite an urgency, which has some wondering if they show is running behind, aside from brief utterances from Santos, Spineshank rattle through the record in fairly short order. Tracks from The Height of Callousness continued to spur the pit in the middle though, and the final few tracks from the album fly by with ‘Negative Space’, ‘Transparent’ and ‘New Disease’ before finally ending with the title track from the record. Interestingly, ‘Malnutrition’ wasn't played even though Santos stated that they had just completed all of The Height of Callousness in full.

Despite (mostly) completing the album in full, Spineshank had more to offer. Beginning with the darker, more atmospheric 'Smothered', the remainder of the set is from 2003’s Self-Destructive Pattern. They cruise through a crushing final three tracks of ‘Violent Mood Swings’, ‘Beginning of The End’, before finally ending in waves of crowd surfers during ‘Dead To Me’. After a very lengthy absence from the UK, Spineshank demanded respect on their name, and Nottingham was more than happy to oblige. There is a fair argument to say that this set could have easily headlined on its own. Maybe that’s next on the order for the Californians…

Drowning Pool

Headlining the night with all the weight and swagger of a band who have earned their scars (SOiL pun intended) Drowning Pool stepped out in Rock City for a long overdue headline appearance. Their last time out in Nottingham was over a decade ago, and absence certainly makes the heart grow fonder. The reception the Texas four piece receive is almighty as they kick things off with welded on opener ‘Sinner’. The crowd immediately whips itself up with energy as the now fully returned Ryan McCombs stands front and centre, reaching out to them. His return to the band feels less like a reunion and more like a restoration, and tonight’s performance cemented that. They promptly move into material that they wrote with McCombs, off of 2010’s self titled album, and the track ‘Feel Like I Do’. This lent itself so easily to crowd participation given the repeated lyric around “raise your hands”, which had Nottingham very eager to partake. ‘Step Up’ provoked some serious 2004 nostalgia, and had the crowd feeling some 20 years younger as well as interest quickly changed to chaos as the pit opened in the middle and continued right through album opener from 2010, ‘Let The Sin Begin’.

Mike Luce chirps up from behind the kit saying the crowd might not be able to see him, but he can see them, and he loves the energy Nottingham is gushing out. The band then introduce the first track they ever wrote with McCombs back in 2007 with ‘Enemy’ from the full circle album, which, like many of their tracks, shows off CJ Pierce as one of the most underrated hands in rock and metal on guitar. ‘37 Stitches’ flipped the room’s mood entirely, bringing the energy down but also bringing a lot of soul into the room. The much more stripped back effort is a rarity in Drowning Pool’s catalogue, and while it was played last time they were in Nottingham in 2013, it just feels so much more right with McCombs back in on vocals and the crowd shining torches now they’ve made it back into the big room. The middle portion of the set runs almost entirely on the McCombs albums, the final track of which is ‘Rebel Yell’. It may not be the track most people tie to Drowning Pool, but tonight the Billy Idol cover was a highlight with a very rowdy crowd, with C J Pierce tearing through the guitar lines as if he had written them himself.

To the surprise of few, and the delight of many, the final stretch of the set is entirely from the Drowning Pool album, 2001’s Sinner. In a real surprise, ‘Sermon’ is the first up and this tour is the first time it’s been played in the UK, ever. ‘Pity’ follows that, and the biting delivery really gets the fans in the middle bouncing, driving the set back into heavier territory. McCombs takes a moment to laud the venue, having played here several times over the years, including with DP in 2007. He laughs about taking a very cheesy selfie with the “Rock City” sign every time he attends, though this time feels somewhat bittersweet in the absence of bassist Stevie Benton, but the first time Drowning Pool has played this venue since 2007. Such a grand speech could only precursor a blistering final three, starting with the iconic ‘Tear Away’. One of the biggest tracks in the bands history was met with a sea of outstretched arms singing the chorus back, with McCombs ad-libbing the “god damn I love me” lyrics that Dave Williams carved into history to “God damn we love you” before screaming Nottingham as Pierce shreds away the final notes. The penultimate track of the set, ‘Reminded’, has only ever been played twice before in the UK, on off shows in 2007 & 2013. But its presence here really galvanises how perfectly balances the bands sets are since their return to having Ryan at the helm.

And then came the moment.

‘Bodies’ does not need an introduction. But the suspense the band builds as they play the opening has become a perfect staple of the set. The crowd absolute erupts as the track kicks off. McCombs climbed onto the barrier for the chorus as the entire room floods forward. Crowd surfers fly over either side of him but he is welded in place. This is recent addition to their live shows but perfectly captures how rabid and loyal their fanbase has been, is its ravely received every time he jumps down off stage. Tonight it came with a twist: Spineshank’s Jonny Santos stormed the stage to join McCombs on vocals, and the two below the track back and forth to close the night out. The fanfare surrounding Drowning Pool, and for that, Spineshank, is more alive than ever. Not only has the interest in these shows been high, but these shows have been nigh on immaculate.

Having witnessed their 2013 Nottingham stop, it is like seeing a completely different band. The show from Rescue Rooms has been a firm, all time favourite for years. But their prowess in the year 2025 is unreal. Drowning Pool are bigger, badder, and more sure of their identity than ever. Tonight was proof that they can be anywhere on a bill, but they are certainly best in the top slot.