There is something symbolic about a band finishing a tour in their own backyard. District 105 spent weeks traveling through Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Vietnam alongside Mikey Rotten and Kamiyada+. A run of shows that marks the most ambitious touring the Saigon-based outfit has ever attempted on Asian soil. Before the final night in Hanoi on May 3rd, the band had one more date at home, the second-to-last stop of their Cycle of Violence tour, and one that carried that particular weight, a hometown show always does. We covered their EU tour last summer, and we’ve watched them build steadily since.
The collaboration with Mikey Rotten is nothing new either. The two have shared stages across Vietnam before, and we reported on one of those outings right here. What the Asian tour added was scale and duration, a shared experience that tends to tighten the chemistry between acts in ways that individual shows rarely can.
The venue itself added another layer to the evening. Kobe Town has recently settled into a new home in District 2, a wide-open space that is noticeably different from the tighter, sweatier rooms where hardcore shows typically live and breathe in this city. This was effectively its baptism as a heavy music venue, and while the late afternoon rain, quite possibly the first announcement of the rainy season, threatened to put a damper on things, the organizers held firm, the bands showed up, and by 7 pm the crowd started filtering in.
Sixxk Boy: Setting the Temperature from Zero
The first artist to take the stage was Sixxk Boy, a dark trap solo act and a core part of Mikey Rotten‘s crew, who has been on the road with them throughout the entire Asian run. His role on tour has been dual: road companion, hype man, and artist in his own right, presenting his current work. The opening stretch was slow and deliberate, the room still cold, and people hanging near the back, unwilling to commit to the space in front of the speakers. By the time he reached the tail end of his set, things had shifted. A handful of people drifted toward the stage, enough movement to signal that the neck muscles were beginning to remember what they were there for.
Under Pressure: Two Years In, Finally Arriving
Right after Sixxk Boy stepped aside, the first live band of the night took the stage. Under Pressure have been around for nearly two years, a stretch that included several lineup changes and a visible search for their own identity within the crowded field of beatdown hardcore that has taken particular hold in Saigon recently. What we saw suggests that the searching is largely over.
The current iteration of the band is well-synced in a way that earlier lineups were not. The guitars are clean and precise, the drum work is heavy without being sloppy, and the vocal approach has evolved into something collective; most of the band screams now, and the layering works. The transitions between fast-paced two-step riffs and full-stop breakdowns are executed with real conviction, no hesitation, no fumbling for the next gear. Under Pressure have found their footing and they know it.
The honest note here is that the band’s potential is outpacing their recorded output. There is a lot to get excited about watching them live, and not much to point people toward outside of the stage. Releasing anything would give that energy somewhere to land. We are watching closely, and we expect more.
I’m Not Sure: A Warm-Up Dressed as a Return
The most anticipated set of the night came wrapped in both nostalgia and uncertainty. I’m Not Sure were once one of the most compelling acts Saigon’s underground had to offer. A band known for great live precision, a creative blend of metal, pop, and electronics, and a genuine ability to command a room. The last few years have been quiet for them, and this show marked something of an official reappearance.
The gap between memory and the present was wide. The band’s creative engine remains in place, but in a slightly different role, with the rest of the lineup an entirely new cast. The stage uncertainty was visible at times, the mix struggled throughout the set, and the song selection moved through territory ranging from buttrock to something that reached toward Korn and Rammstein without fully committing to either. None of it landed with the certainty that I’m Not Sure‘s earlier work carried.
That said, we are not writing them off. The technical ability of everyone involved is not in question. What is missing is time on stage together, shared language, and the confidence that only comes from repetition. We are choosing to take this set as a warm-up. An awkward, imperfect, but necessary first step before the actual return we know they are capable of. That return is something we genuinely look forward to.
Mikey Rotten and Kamiyada+: No Let-Up, No Apologies
The energy at the venue needed somewhere to go; Mikey Rotten gave it a destination. Whatever one thinks of where hip-hop sits relative to the hardcore and metal world, the man knows how to work a crowd better than most frontpeople. That is not a small skill. He has it completely.
This time, he was joined by Kamiyada+, whose vocal presence slotted in beside Mikey‘s delivery with a precision that felt like it had been road-tested across the entire tour. The two of them together were relentless, constantly interacting with the audience, constantly moving, and an energy that made standing still feel like a conscious effort. Mikey’s style of rapping, rooted in hardcore and metal influences and built around harsh vocals and heavy sampling, has always resonated with the Saigon audience. He is, at this point, close enough to a local that the crowd responds with the full trust that comes with familiarity.
The show was a party, and a good one. The thought that kept surfacing was what a full live band configuration would add to all of this. The potential for that next step is visible. Stay tuned for it.
District 105: A Bit of a Bittersweet Homecoming
Last on stage were the hosts of the occasion in every sense that mattered. District 105 is closing out their Cycle of Violence Asian tour at home, in Saigon, on the second-to-last night of the whole run. The touring miles were visible the moment they stepped out.
They skipped the long, slow intro that has been a familiar part of their live approach and moved straight into the riffs. It had been a few months since their last home show, and the improvement in their output over that stretch is noticeable in the way the band breathes together. There is a tightness now that touring builds and staying put does not. Each member is anticipating the next shift, the whole unit leaning in the same direction without anyone needing to look sideways for a cue.
The set drew from their recent two-part EP releases and included a handful of tracks from their upcoming LP. The reaction to the new material was not lacking. The band has grounded itself in a style that is clearly their own and is now actively building on that foundation rather than circling it. The upcoming record is something we have already been teased about multiple times across this show alone.
The audience’s reaction was very positive, but the volume and faces changed compared to some time ago. It’s hard to come up with a name in the modern Vietnamese hardcore scene more prolific than District 105, yet the audience numbers seem to work better for them abroad than in their hometown. The question is whether this is audience fatigue (the huge volume of shows recently and in the next few weeks) and people want to pace themselves, or something else?
Overall, the evening had less energy than these lineups usually produce. Part of that is almost certainly the venue itself (the wide, open layout of the space lacks the compression that tighter rooms create), where the crowd has nowhere to go but forward and the sound hits harder simply by proximity. Pit energy is, in part, an architectural outcome. The other part is harder to name precisely, but the suspicion is that some of the city’s heaviest heads are already conserving themselves for the upcoming Long Tranh Ho Dau festival. If so, it is a reasonable calculation. But still a bit disappointing as music should be enjoyed, not calculated.
What the night did offer was range. A mixed lineup that moved between dark trap, beatdown hardcore, a veteran band finding their footing again, hip-hop heavy enough to share a stage with metal acts, and a headliner that has earned every mile they have covered. That kind of range is healthy for a scene that can sometimes fold inward on itself.
