A terrifyingly-fun and musically exciting derailment of adulthood
Getdown Services, the increasingly infamous Bristol-based best-friends-forever duo, Josh Law and Ben Sadler, are musical anti-depressants in disco-rock-post-punk naked man disguise.
My first introduction to their sound was watching them on telly, performing their LCD Soundsystem-esque track, “Radiator”: relentlessly-escalating, dance groove, punky, funny, chaotic and 100% physical. Friends and critics who have seen them live, have been “affected” in giant dollops by their nothing-off-limits audience interactions. I was buzzing….what ratio of insult/delight/torso would I face? Would the crowd cope? I got “radiator-ready”, took a deep breath and squeezed as far forward as the packed La Belle Angèle would allow.
Turns out, this was not a gig at all. This was, in fact, a sweatily raucous primary seven P.A.R.T.Y. Let’s get a venue the size of a small Tesco metro, jammed-full of Monday night work-wearies to mosh and disco and swear about lentils, livestock, B.O., Jamie Oliver and “bitty” probiotics. You’d better join in, or you’d forever have Ben’s “loaded with cholesterol” collapse on your conscience.
It was a simple affair to look at: 2 men, 2 pairs of shorts, 1 T-shirt (discarded 5 mins in, 3XL, stripey “I think I look shit tonight”), 1 guitar, some keys and a weird black box thingy that seemed to be pumping out their excitable synthy backing track sound.
And, somehow, it all worked. Straight away.
During the celebrated, “Crisps”, a stream of consciousness about the crappy-ness of modern British life (“letter with a fine, for going in the bus lane, But I don’t drive/white goods/Facebook Market/Tess Daly/pyramid scheme/sugar free beans“) there was high confidence that there were going to be no-cringes-given tonight. By anyone. The crowd were immediately limbs-dancing and word-perfect singing to my left, right and centre, the “epi” of which I was squished into. Suddenly I was aware of my lack of previous insight into this act’s contradiction of joy (high-def neon visual, lo-tech stand-up-esque performance) and (bleak lyrical, authentic, naked) despair.
They self-admit they’ve found a niche between comedy and music (“we’re not good enough to be either”), a sweet spot they’ve infilled with a solid 805k monthly Spotify listeners, and a word-of-mouth driven growth that saw them doing 130 gigs in 2025, including 2 sold out tours*. This may explain their personal invitation to Harry Style’s Meltdown this year in June at the Southbank centre, an artist-curated event **.
“Funny” they are, and “funny” they find each other. Josh nearly lost it as Ben’s vocals became particularly pointy in “Don’t Cheese Me Off”, but pulled himself together just in time to declare that his favourite colour was, in fact, “Green.” “Thanks.”
Josh Law. Video credit: Alison McIntosh
Their continued insistence that they fall short both in comedic and musical terms did nothing for me but make me feel that the opposite might, in fact, be true. I found myself paying laser-like attention to the lyrics.
My discovery? Their songs are either:
1) about social anxiety or
2) about social hilarity.
(N.B. This oversimplified categorisation does not do their messaging justice (mental health is everything, and so is music and letting loose as an antidote). As their name suggests, they are seriously providing a much-needed service in seriously bleak times……)
Let’s take the inde-songwritery rock track “I Wish It Didn’t Bother Me” The crowd became quiet and swaying-levels-of-still as Josh, on understated melodic vocals and guitar, took charge, the moment being described adoringly by onlooker Ben, as “tender.” The line “Am I having fun or am I only watching it? It’s hard to tell” struck me as a profound description of social awkwardness and the numbness that might result from depression. And the more dance-punk “I Can’t Die Like That” from their latest album “Massive Champion” (released on 14 August this year), highlighted the futility of unhealthy coping mechanisms, “Maybe my head won’t snap if I fill it with snacks;” admitted choices we sometimes feel we are forced to make to keep on performing socially as if everything is just A-O.K. “Eat, Sleep, Quiche, Repeat” imagines just this (“I bring a certain sadness to the conga line”).
Josh Law singing “I Wish It Didn’t Bother Me” Image credit: Alison McIntosh
Yes, life can be bleak, boring and depressing. But that’s ok if you have each other….. “He’s my best mate” proclaimed Josh proudly as he performed a slow-motion wedgie on Ben, hoisting the black pseudo-speedo swim shorts well above the muffin-top and giving my brain and eyes a topographical outline to never be able to unsee. I might have to have some crisps to help me process.
Indeed, it is this nuanced idea of being able to look at ourselves from above and see our robotic low-mood execution of the adult life to-do list for what it is. And that sometimes, our coping mechanisms might be seen as kinda hilarious. Example: the compulsion to smack an inanimate object really, really hard (“I bang my head on the radiator, Let’s actually go”). Ditto the idea of just wanting to be six again and “think about my mummy” in (“Head Down for the Conversation”).
And when I heard “I don’t want my mum, but I do want someone who can tell me what to do,” I imagined the sweet relief felt if someone could give us a little break from being adults for a tiny while……..Wait, is this whole act just about letting two very overgrown children call the shots?
Just as this penny had dropped I found myself arm in arm with a stranger doing some sort of punk version of a highland twirl. Next, like a little taste of blue fizzy pop, we hypnotically all took a step to the left, and then to the right during post-punky party Cha Cha Slide. And then,with relentlessly building EDM energy we were made to mosh-down a dirty pint of “Radiator” followed by a bassy-chaser of “Dog Dribble” Finishing off with a (Daft-Punk accompanied “One More Time”) stage dive from Josh into the crowd, this genre-blurring gig represented a terrifyingly-fun and chaotically-organised derailment of adulthood.
I’m going back for more at the Barrowlands in November and I cannot wait.
** Reilly, Nick “Harry Styles Announces Eclectic Line-up for his Meltdown Festival” in Rolling Stone (UK), (7/4/2026)
*Hutchinson, K, “Being annoying is worse than being evil”: the high-octance, low-culture genius of indie duo Getdown Services” The Guardian (31/12/2025)