Hot Milk delivers an out-of-this-world set at Space Ballroom
On September 26, Space Ballroom in Hamden filled early with music fans, giving even the openers a strong crowd to work with on a Friday evening.
ANTHMS
Local emo band Anthms opened with a certain looseness that you can channel when you are working out the kinks in front of a receptive crowd. The set ended with their new single “The Burbs,” an indication of where their sound is heading with their new EP Does It Ever Get Better?, which releases October 17.
SAVE FACE
Save Face brought a heavier edge. Back at Space Ballroom after a few years away, they dusted off a song not played in six years and spoke with bluntly about pushing through the long grind of finishing a record, and the struggle to keep creating when life piles up. They may have been a bit hard on themselves, because the set carried plenty of energy and the crowd was locked in, treating them like regulars at Space Ballroom.
HOT MILK
By the time Hot Milk walked out, the room was primed. Energetic and electric frontwoman, Han Mee, aggressively called for a wall of death… in a 300-capacity room. By the second song she stepped into the crowd and shredded on her guitar while fans created a circle pit around her!
Crowd surfing became a constant throughout Hot Milk’s set. At one point, Mee called out to Sarah, a die-hard who has followed the band to every show along the East Coast. After a quick exchange, Sarah launched herself into the crowd and surfed back to her spot.
Young kids also built on the energy, including a brave young girl, probably no older than 10, crowdsurfed towards the front of the stage. Mee carefully took her from the last set of hands and playfully rocked her like a baby before setting her down, a rare pause of tenderness inside the chaos.
A standout moment of the night was “Breathing Underwater,” its lyrics song in beutifully in duet with Mee and co-vocalist Jim Shaw and a single acoustic guitar. As the crowd sang back the lyrics, the band performed a seamless transistion into full electric guitar, as emotions swelled in the room.
One can tell Hot Milk feels just as at home in a small-cap room, as they do on festival stages. Their energy never dipped the entire set, in fact the stifling hot room only semed to fuel the bandmembers even more.
Hot Milk SETLIST
Space Ballroom, Hamden, Connecticut (9/26/2025)
Hell Is on Its Way
Swallow This
I JUST WANNA KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I’M DEAD
Sunburn From Your Bible
Machine Elves
90 Seconds to Midnight
Bad Influence
Insubordinate Ingerland
Candy Coated Lie$ (Alternate Version)
The American Machine
HORROR SHOW
Breathing Underwater
Bloodstream
Over Your Dead Body
Sediments
Asphyxiate
Glass Spiders
Party on My Deathbed (encore)
Chase the Dragon (encore)
