Make some noise for my bass solo!

Back to the mothership!

Yup, another trip to The O2 - and I'm up in the gods for the first time in ages. I saw Wolf Alice at Reading a couple of years ago and quite enjoyed them and I didn't mind their last album, even if I was a bit confused by it - so when tickets came up through work I thought I'd check them out and see if my confusion could be resolved.


But first up, Sunflower Bean - tonight's support act (Bria Salmena are also supporting on this tour).  And I quite liked them (obviously I do, they're a female fronted indie band!) with some well-crafted songs with a decent full sound to them. They were maybe a little lacking in stage presence for such a large venue (although it didn't help that they seemed quite squeezed in to the front few feet of the stage) and it felt like a bit of a risk for both them and Wolf Alice considering they're not a million miles apart, but I enjoyed their set and it seemed to go down well with the rest of the audience. Wikipedia tells me they've been together since 2013, so I really feel I should have heard of them before and if I remember I might check out one or two of their albums - apparently their '18 offering Twentytwo In Blue reached the dizzy heights of #38.



Up next, tonight's main act and luckily they've given themselves the whole stage to work with - and a very glittery stage it is too. It all feels a bit "let's do up the village hall with tinsel in a retro 70s style" - whether that's the effect they're going on, I'm not clear. And they too have a decent full sound to them - they make quite a lot of noise for the five of them. And what about the songs then? Well, there seem to have been two schools of thought in the arena...


One school of thought (which I was in) was that they were fine, but all a bit samey - there was one song I recognised and liked (although I obviously can't work out which one it was now) and everything else just kinda blurred into each other. I didn't hate them but I didn't love them - I just mehhed them. Which isn't great for a full concert now, is it? Fortunately, the other school of thought (which it seemed everyone else was in) was that every track was the best song ever which had to be sung and danced along to - I've not seen so much standing up since I saw The Vamps here over three years ago. 


So, I guess it was, for the fans, a good gig and I was pleased to see the band getting a whole lotta love. But the confusion I felt over their latest album was not in the slightest bit reduced by the evening - I felt it was a competent set of adequate songs, but I was hoping for a bit more than that (yes, I know - I'm so unreasonable).




 

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