Last week Thursday (6 December), the age-old question rang through Los Angeles’ famed The Echo: “will America understand tonight’s British headliners?” There have been a multitude of groups over the years who just didn’t manage to crack the States, whether it be down to their overt Britishness, abundance of quirkiness or the simple absence of a ‘click’. Luckily for the London-based HMLTD, none of this turned out to be an issue during their US headline debut along the Sunset Boulevard. Henry Spychalski and co. – currently supporting Nine Inch Nails on the West Coast – have been making waves back home for the best part of the last two years thanks to their eclectic mix of glam rock, trap, garage punk (to name just three) and a hyper-artistic visual aesthetic unrivalled by their contemporaries. The sextet’s US debut drew from their sparse back catalogue to date, including cuts from July’s Hate Music Last Time Delete EP and a handful of 2017 singles, among them To the Door and Stained. Abi Raymaker checked it out.
