The Skinner Brothers | Love Ghost | SAHAJi
Liverpool District
14th November 2025

The Skinner Brothers bring their triumphant sold out tour to a loud and appreciative Liverpool audience.

There is a buzz in the air tonight, a sense of this being not just a gig, but an Event. After ten years in the business, The Skinner Brothers are on the verge of being an overnight success, with a sold out tour and a legion of devoted fans ready to throw themselves around a dancefloor and celebrate the beauty and power of live music.

The buzz starts early, as the band are on door duty, in their black masks of course, identities completely obscured. This gives me two firsts in my gig-going career; never before have I been personally welcomed into a gig by the headlining band, and never before have I been welcomed into a gig by people who have the appearance of a team of super villains! Nevertheless, they greet people as they arrive, giving them their wristbands for the evening. They are also happy to chat and make themselves available for selfies throughout the night.

After years of going under the radar, a collaboration with Ren has raised their profile and introduced them to a new audience, who have responded with a demonstration of fierce love for the band. The Skinner Brothers have returned this by proving themselves to be one of the best live bands around. Tonight is a three-band treat, with support bands SAHAJi and Love Ghost adding extra value for money to the £17.50 ticket price, a rarity these days. In fact maybe ‘support bands’ is the wrong way to describe SAHAJi and Love Ghost, as they both seem determined to come across as if they were headlining the show.

SAHAJi primarily consist of brothers Shotaro and Youshiro Nishida on guitar and vocals, although they are fleshed out with a bassist and drummer for live shows, and they have been praised by Louder Than War before. There is an Oasis vibe in the air, with one song even starting with the words “I wanna be a rock & roll star”, but there is more to SAHAJi than this. They make an indie rock sound with swagger, and this swagger is brought to the stage with singer Shotaro leaning into the crowd as if performing in front of thousands of his own fans, rising above their first band status and asking the audience to clap and sing along. This can be a risky move for a support band, because if the audience choose not to respond, they would be left seeming foolish or overeager, but the audience are more than up for it, and SAHAJi win the crowd over with an impressive ease.

Love Ghost are perhaps a more traditional rock band than SAHAJi, but again exudes star quality and attitude. They have a history with The Skinner Brothers, having collaborated with them a few times, and as such find an audience more than willing to engage with them. The audience participation is again incredible for a support band, with Love Ghost not only getting the crowd to clap along to songs with arms aloft, but getting them to join in a chant. In Latin! The credit for this must be split amongst the band for having the songs and the confidence to even try this, but also to the hugely impressive Liverpool audience for being so ready to jump in with such enthusiasm.

More enthusiasm (and more volume) is saved for The Skinner Brothers, who are greeted like conquering heroes by a crowd who are not only able to sing choruses back at the band, but entire songs, including the raps. Singer Zac is clearly moved by the level of devotion they are receiving on their current tour, but if this move to a higher tier is unexpected, he is more than ready for it. On a bill with more than its fair share of confident and commanding frontmen, Zac is on a different level, holding the audience entirely in the palm of his hand.

The mask he wears throughout the night makes him seem oddly emotionless and expressionless, which is quite at odds with the emotion of what he is singing and saying. The years he has spent doing exactly this have paid off and given him a commanding stage presence, and the recent surge in popularity has given him an audience who are more than willing to join in, to roar and rap and shout along with him. The audience are hungry for this and are lively and appreciative. A mosh pit forms at the front of the stage, and Zac gets them to part during a rare calm moment, before rushing back at each other as the beats kick in again.

The band behind Zac are tight and powerful, although from my vantage point, the bass is incredibly loud and every time a low F is played, it hits with chest rattling intensity. The singer from Love Ghost joins the band on stage and finishes with a mighty stage dive that carries him to the back of the crowd, where he stays for a while to watch the show. Not to be outdone, Zac does the same a few songs later and is buoyed by the crowd as he sings, shortly being returned to the stage minus his trademark bucket hat. This is soon returned to him by the crowd. Curiously, the mask that Zac wears is revealed to be a 360-degree head covering, complete with what appears to be a black skull exposed in parts.

When the set comes to an end, the band don’t even bother leaving the stage before starting their encore. Instead, all the members of the support bands return to the stage, resulting in 13 people crammed onto District’s small stage, all jumping, dancing and hollering. It is a joyous end to a joyous night, a celebration of all that is good about live music.

The Skinner brothers are obviously a band whose time has come, and it is easy to believe that this is the last time they will be playing venues of this size. This is part of what makes tonight feel so special, a chance to catch a band before the mainstream beckons. They have the songs, the attitude and the frontman to make it to the top, so tonight might be the last intimate glimpse we get of them. If this does happen, it will be a well deserved success story. The Skinner Brothers are proof that being fiercely independent is no barrier to making it. They have done it the hard way, by building up grass roots support, and it has been more than an event watching it work like this.

~

Find The Skinner Brothers at their Instagram

Words and photo by Banjo, you can find his Louder Than War archive here