Huddy Storms His Castle Overseas For London Headline Debut

As I arrive at the venue I am instantly greeted by a queue stretching right down the street with fans eagerly awaiting the first ever London headline show of Huddy. As soon as the doors open, the firstcomers make a dash for the stage and mark their spot for the evening inside the intimate Downstairs At The Dome. 

Huddy

Downstairs At The Dome – 11 December 2024

Words And Photography: Ryan Hildrew

I can already tell that I have to make a choice tonight for photos: be able to float freely through the venue or be packed tightly into one spot at the front for the entirety.

The 22-year-old Chase Hudson quickly rose to fame as one of the co-founders of the TikTok collective Hype House in 2019, which hosted a variety of creatives and had its own Netflix reality series in 2022.

As Huddy, he started his musical career on Music.ly, which went on to be the social media platform TikTok, amassing 30 million followers. In 2020, Huddy was signed to Interscope Records and released his debut single, 21st Century Vampire, in January 2021, which now sits at 40 million streams on Spotify.

Fast forwarding to this year, Huddy landed a huge collaboration with Palaye Royale on Cyanide and made appearances on their Death Or Glory Tour. He now steps up centre stage to claim the room for himself in Tufnell Park, London. 

As the room fills, a crowd consisting of 90% excitable young girls eagerly await the youthful internet star to adorn the stage. The night starts off with Pablo Miller in support, a young British/French artist who describes himself as a rockstar of the pop world.

Miller soon has the crowd riled up and is clearly having fun with it, exchanging smiles. Millar embraces his bassist NEMO, looking out at the crowd and asking if they are ready for Huddy tonight. He is greeted with loud screams in response. 

The energy is already electric, and we are only a few songs in with heavy bass lines and flashing lights. Breezing over some technical difficulties without a fuss, Pablo whipped the crowd into a frenzy, ready for the madness that was yet to come. 

I wedge myself right up against the side speaker as there is not an inch spare around the hardcore fans at centre stage. Ready for Huddy, I was so glad I brought my earplugs.

A piercing scream of sheer excitement fills the room as Huddy jumps up onto the stage draped in a statement fur coat and grinning ear to ear. He takes no time at all, jumping immediately into the show with The One, and the crowd is a mass of wide eyes and dropped jaws. Already, I am starting to believe tonight is going to surpass my expectations. 

Huddy is a steam train that is not stopping, flying through Addicted To You, 21 and Love Bites, all new singles released this year. He finally pauses to take in the overwhelming response he has received. “I didn’t realise you guys got down like this. What the fuck?” This is met with a blushing giggle from the front of the room.

“You guys ready to party tonight?” shouts Huddy, and a roar shakes the foundations. This takes me back as these fans are really bringing the energy tonight.

Powering through Party Crasher, Teenage Heartbreak and I Don’t Care introduces his debut album Teenage Heartbreak, released in 2021.

Huddy pours a bottle of water over his head to cool down, and even that gets a piercing scream response. There is a level of intensity to the fan’s infatuation with the young star tonight that I do not see often. 

Headlock is next, and during the song, he makes his way along the front row, holding everyone’s hand. It is a personal, intimate interaction with the fans, leaving some very giddy-looking faces. Huddy follows straight into Mugshot.

A personalised English flag gets thrown up to the front, and Chase proudly drapes it around himself, voicing his love for the people who have shown up for him tonight. “Thank you so much,” he shouts.

“Just a kid from California that didn’t think he would ever make it in life.” He talks about the struggles of many people around him doubting him and telling him it will never work out. The sheer excitement from these fans tonight tells you otherwise. 

“Can I play you guys my first song?” says Hudson, and the crowd was jumping before he had even got into it. You can tell this is going to be a fan favourite, and I soon realised I may have been the only person in the room who did not know every single word to 21st Century Vampire.
 
Just when I thought the night had reached its peak, Huddy tells the crowd this next one “is our biggest song”. All The Things I Hate About You begins, and now the crowd are in competition with Huddy to see who can sing this song the loudest.

The room is shaking, hands are in the air, and everyone is jumping around having the time of their life. There is a reason this song has well over 35 million streams. 

Huddy has not stood still once the whole night putting on an arena performance in a 250-capacity room. The atmosphere is simply electric.
 
As we finish Don’t Freak Out, Huddy exclaims, “I Don’t think I’ve sweat so much in my fucking life,” as he finally takes a second to catch his breath. He now slows the chaos right down, and everyone holds their phones high, shining their lights as it ends. 

This moment of peace was short-lived, and now we hit back hard with his latest single, which features Palaye Royale, called Cyanide, and the room is shaking once more. A lucky fan got the spotlight as he turned the mic around to her for a part of the chorus. 

A humble Huddy tells everyone, “This has to be the greatest show I’ve ever been at,” saying how he has been lucky enough to be involved in some great shows on the Palaye Royale tour. He says that nothing compares to the love he was receiving tonight. 

Chase takes the time to thank his whole team, even down to his photographer, getting him up front on stage, which sat very well with me. 

The band closed the night with The Eulogy Of You And Me, and it is clear to see that both performers and fans could not have given any more to this evening. It was truly a night for Huddy’s history books and the start of a long, successful career in music to come. 

In all honestly, I did not know what to expect from tonight. But I can say that I left the show a real fan of what I had witnessed and am looking forward to the next time I get to see the young star in action.

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