What Is It Like to See The Hunna Live?

Shirts Off, Pits Open, Drinks in the Air

On record The Hunna are an indie-rock band. In the room it gets much rougher. At the Welly Club in Hull on October 27, 2023, Potter walked on shirtless, most of the men in the crowd were shirtless too, drinks flew, and the Squareone reviewer said the pits felt closer to a heavy metal show than an indie gig. When someone went down, the people around him had him back on his feet in seconds. It has been like this from the start: on the first headline tour in 2016, aboard a converted cargo ship, Potter took his shirt off mid-set and "several sweaty men" in the crowd copied him (Exeposé). If you want to stay dry, stand at the side.

Ryan Potter Won't Stay on the Stage

Potter, who goes by Tino, spends the last stretch of the night in the crowd. He crowd-surfed through the encore at Manchester Academy in April 2019 (The Mancunion), ended a California support set with Barns Courtney in September 2019 by surfing out over the floor (KCR College Radio), and in Hull he dove off the stage and let the crowd carry him back to it. Smaller trades happen at the barrier too. Someone in Hull threw a T-shirt onto the stage, and Potter threw a guitar pick back.

New Album? You're Hearing All of It First

When there's a new record, The Hunna play it front to back, then pay you back with the old songs. At Shepherd's Bush Empire in January 2017 they played the whole of 100 before a three-song encore of "World Is Ours," "Brother" and "Bad For You" (RockShot). On the October and November 2022 dates they opened with the full self-titled album, starting "The Storm" into "Trash," and only then got to what Potter called their greatest hits. Fans split on how well this works. At Electric Ballroom on November 4, 2022, the album had been out for days, most of the room didn't know the songs yet, and The Upcoming noted some quiet, awkward moments. A night later at The Mill in Digbeth, a long-time fan blog said the crowd already knew the new tracks and sang them back. Once the hits arrive, "She's Casual" and "Bonfire" sit at the end of the night more often than not.

The Torches-Out Song

Every headline set has one stripped-back moment, and it's the only time the pit stops. In 2019 it was "Brother," played acoustically: at Manchester Academy the phone torches replaced the moshing (The Mancunion), and at Brixton Academy on April 7, 2019, Potter played it alone (When The Horn Blows). On the 2022 and 2023 runs the slot went to "Lover," played solo at Electric Ballroom and acoustically at the Welly Club and the Rescue Rooms on Halloween 2023. Back at Shepherd's Bush in 2017, the guitarist and bassist sat on the drum riser for the ballad while the balconies held up their lights.

Ryan Will Talk About the Industry

Between songs, Potter keeps coming back to the band's fight with the music business. Before the first song at Manchester Academy in 2019 the band gave "an emotional few words about the troubles they've been through" (Popped Music), and Potter talked about "bad people" who had been "taking advantage" of the band and its fans (The Mancunion). In October 2022 at the Trinity Centre, a converted church, he told the room the band were "all about f***ing good energy" and that "every record sale really does count" (Re-Sound). If you came for a quick, wordless set, this is the bit that will surprise you. Long-time fans tend to cheer it.

Who You'll Be Standing With

The Hunna crowd started very young and has grown up with the band. At Rock City in January 2017 one reviewer said nearly everyone in the room was under twenty, and at Shepherd's Bush that month RockShot counted "several hundred doting teenage girls" packed against the barrier for hours. By 2019 The Mancunion put the Manchester Academy crowd at mostly pop-punk fans aged 14 to 25. The 2023 Hull crowd was mostly men. Re-Sound's 2022 review put it neatly: the fanbase grew up with the early songs and stayed.