Live Review + Gallery | Have A Nice Life Play The Last Ever Gig At The Marble Factory

Have A Nice Life | Deathcrash

The Marble Factory, Bristol

19th June 2025

Photography by Tabatha Gibson

George Ward

Freelance journalist and online editor for CLUNK. Can be found out and about in Bristol, finding cheap records or having a pint on King Street.

Have A Nice Life and deathcrash’s powerfully emotional sets provided the perfect send off for legendary Bristol venue The Marble Factory

Bristol’s Marble Factory, twinned with the club Motion, is one of the city’s most iconic venues. It was the location of many of our first Bristol gigs and club nights and is sadly the latest casualty in a worrying number of closing venues in the UK. Despite their best efforts, with the venue submitting a detailed bid to buy the site at the end of their lease, they have shared that Motion and The Marble Factory will no longer be open past July. Because of this, Have A Nice Life’s gig last week was the last ever gig to take place in these walls.

Opening the night were London slowcore band deathcrash. With two albums under their belt, deathcrash are still somehow flying under a lot of people’s radar, but those in the know made sure to get arrive early to catch them. Their tracks move at a devastatingly slow pace, with deceptively simple guitar and drum lines, before each one sneaks up on you, the band gently laying layers of noise upon you with each slow beat.

The perfect example of this comes in the form of the closer ‘American Metal,’ from deathcrash’s first album ‘Return’. Hearing this track live again brought me right back to 2022 and, as the band patiently unfolded it for us, the crowd were completely engaged, holding onto each delicate note. After the song’s brutally sad final line, the band begin the final build up, never speeding up and forcing us to be slowly pounded as the track builds to its finale.

Like all the best slowcore, you barely notice the build up happening due to its extreme patience, until you’re being washed over by a wall of warm, crushing noise. deathcrash aren’t reinventing the genre, they’re just doing it extremely well, with complete sincerity. Don’t ignore them.

After this perfect warm up, Have A Nice Life took to the stage, for a career-spanning and surprisingly energetic set. Have A Nice Life started hard, with some of their heavier, more post-punk tracks. ‘Defenestration Song’s huge riffs sounded unreal in the Marble Factory and each drum stab shot through the warehouse like a bullet.

As the band worked their way through the setlist, it’s impossible not to be amazed at just how entertaining they are to watch. Have A Nice Life’s music is often, in the absolute best way, dreary, but hearing their tracks live is an entirely new experience. This is largely due to the pure energy and passion of frontman Dan Barrett. Screaming, spinning round the stage, his body compulsing with each riff and breakdown, Barrett truly pours his entire soul into every one of these tracks, giving songs that are 18 years old enough life to make them feel newly released.

Making their way through much of their discography, including the ethereal ‘Science Beat’ and the haunting ‘Hunter’, Have A Nice Life proved just how varied their sound truly is, seeming as at home with moshable guitar-heavy tracks as they do with deeply depressing drones. It was the final run of 3 tracks though, which solidified the band as the perfect choice to send off this venue.

Fan favourite ‘Bloodhail’ was up first, with the entire crowd yelling every lyric back at the band. Barrett stopped singing, holding up his arms and soaking up every cry of “arrowheads” as the band and the crowd became one. Hearing the lyrics of this track live really makes them hit home and as Barrett pleads “Can’t you see it’s all flown out of my hands,” you can’t help but completely believe him, from the weight he places on every word and the dedication he gives to every performance.

On ‘A Quick One Before the Eternal Worm Devours Connecticut,’ he sits, letting the band send out waves of calm and melancholy. The track is unbelievably beautiful and the subtle additions that appear with each repetition are so satisfying to notice live.

Hearing ‘Earthmover’ live will forever live as one of my favourite moments at any gig I have been to. The track, the closer to the album ‘Deathconsciousness’ and also to this set, is a mammoth, as grand in scale and destructive as the golems it describes. As Have A Nice Life slowly worked their way through the verses, the sense of anticipation in the crowd was incredible to be apart of, as each and every one of us knew what was about to happen.

As soon as those instantly recognisable piano notes chime, the entire warehouse is filled with noise, in possibly the most satisfying and cathartic climax of any song I can think of. The raw passion that every member plays with is incredibly emotional and, as the ever-increasing wall of sound continues to roll across the crowd, bass vibrating in every chest, you’re reminded just how important it is to see this music live: important for the fans to experience through proper speakers, and equally as important for the band to be able to share such intimate, special art.

Without venues like The Marble Factory, you just wouldn’t get the opportunity to hear a band like Have A Nice Life in the way they are meant to be heard. As the band shared with us, the availability of these spaces is unbelievably important to the survival of a city’s scene and without them, Bristol would not be the thriving hub of music that it is today. We sincerely hope that Motion and The Marble Factory find new life elsewhere, as soon as possible. We will be there right away.