Words by: Bea Burridge
Photos by: Rosie Morrison and Estie Joy Booley
Give ‘Em The Boot forms part of an Arts Council England‑funded project that will also launch the Routes Radicals zine and podcast later this year. The independent platform will explore music, culture and identity through an intersectional lens, championing underrepresented voices in punk and alternative music, as well as in the drag, cabaret and burlesque communities. The project is led by writer, promoter and DJ Sandy Dhaliwal. Routes Radicals and Give ‘Em The Boot were born from the founder’s lived experience navigating challenges and barriers in music and media as a queer, neurodivergent, woman of colour.
Photos by Rosie Morrison
There was something refreshingly uncompromising about Give ’Em The Boot. In a city where alternative culture is increasingly polished, sponsored, and algorithmically curated, this DIY punk cabaret felt defiantly human. Loud, messy, inclusive, political, funny, and deeply community-driven. The night succeeded because it understood what punk originally promised: space for people who never felt fully welcome anywhere else.
The event was hosted by Routes Radicals at Signature Brew’s Haggerston venue beneath the East London railway arches. Give ’Em The Boot positioned itself as an accessible and inclusive punk cabaret celebrating underrepresented voices across punk, drag, burlesque, and performance art. The lineup embraced and celebrated artists who are women, queer, disabled, neurodivergent, and people of colour, which sadly are demographics still often sidelined by mainstream alternative music scenes. This mission statement could easily have become a branding exercise in lesser hands but, the event feels genuine, urgent, and culturally necessary.
Signature Brew already holds an important place within London’s independent music ecosystem, having two venues in London mixing brewery taproom, grassroots venue and social hub, they lean more toward authenticity than trend-chasing. The audience becomes part of the event rather than passive consumers of it.
The communal feeling Give ’Em The Boot promised could be felt as soon as you entered the venue. Punk has always spoken the language of rebellion, but historically the scene has not always been as inclusive as its rhetoric suggested yet this event reclaimed punk’s radical foundations without turning the evening into a lecture. Politics were present in the room through on stage speeches and driven lyrics, but not just through anger and disdain; they also emerged through joy, visibility, humour, and artistic expression.
The lineup itself reflected the aims beautifully, featuring Liv Wynter, Dakka Skanks, Ms. Mohammed, and Music In Our Underpants, alongside drag host Miss Joelle. On paper, it sounds chaotic: ska, punk, comedy, drag, cabaret, and burlesque all colliding in one bill. In practice, the eclecticism becomes the point. Give ’Em The Boot understood that alternative culture thrives through cross-pollination. Instead of rigid genre boundaries, the night celebrated shared energy.
Headliner Liv Wynter gave a fierce performance that blended spoken word, rap, and punk into a set that was impossible to ignore. Commanding the room without relying on a band, Liv moved between deeply personal reflections and wider social commentary, balancing anger and vulnerability with remarkable confidence. Their presence was magnetic throughout, turning the performance into what felt like a rallying cry. They challenged the audience while drawing them into a powerful sense of collective connection. Dakka Skanks brought infectious ska-punk momentum that immediately loosened the room. Their set felt celebratory rather than nostalgic, avoiding the trap many modern ska revival acts fall into. Ms. Mohammed injected something darker and stranger into proceedings, blending heavy riffs with Middle Eastern influences in a way that felt genuinely fresh. Meanwhile, the opening act Music In Our Underpants provided absurdist punk comedy that could have derailed the pacing entirely but instead broadens the emotional palette of the evening.
The drag hosting deserved particular praise. Many live events still treat drag performers as side entertainment or intermission filler. Here, they became connective tissue. Miss Joelle brought warmth, wit, and unpredictability between acts, maintaining momentum while reinforcing the evening’s central ethos of self-expression without apology. Their presence transformed the event from a standard gig into something closer to a variety show for contemporary counterculture.
What elevated the evening beyond simply being a fun night out, however, was its serious commitment to accessibility. The organiser, Sandy Dhaliwal, made accessibility central rather than supplemental, offering BSL interpreters, step-free access, accessible seating, and additional support for attendees with specific requirements. In the live music world, accessibility is often treated as an afterthought buried in FAQs, here it was woven directly into the identity of the event. Of course, the event was not perfect, as unfortunately is the case at so many shows lately, much of the crowd was insistent in talking over the acts that were on stage, which had to be called out multiple times with no change.
All in all, Give ’Em The Boot felt culturally alive in a way many London events currently do not. Too often, alternative nightlife in the capital either collapses into nostalgia or gets absorbed into influencer-friendly aesthetics. This event avoided both traps, feeling grassroots without becoming exclusionary and progressive without becoming sanitised. That spirit alone made Give ’Em The Boot one of the most exciting grassroots cultural nights currently emerging in London.
You can catch Give ‘Em The Boot festival on Saturday 5 September. Follow Routes Radicals on socials as tickets will be on sale soon!
Photo by Rosie Morrison