Chvrches. Love is dead.
PALM CITY DJ SET
Index.
June 2018 Issue 22
Ed’s letter.
I’m all over the place, Dear Reader. I’m a mess. I can’t sleep, I’m constantly anxious, I can’t step away from the internet without feeling nervy. And why, you ask? Well, because - at the time of this magazine going to press - The 1975 are teasing us something rotten. Long term chums may remember we’re not on the fence when it comes to Matty, George, Adam and Ross. We’ve been buzzing on their forthcoming third album for months now. It was back in December 2016 that Mr Healy talked to us about the record, and we’ve not calmed down since. As I write this, we’re basically a month from the date we’re hoping it will arrive - the much teased 1st June - and posters have started to appear ‘in the wild’. The band tweeted out a message, then cleared their socials - again. We all know what it means, but this issue is due in the printers now. Like, NOW. Let us know how this one ends.
UPDATE 4. MØ 6. DRENGE 8. BASTILLE 10. PARAMORE 12. TOVE STYRKE 14. BANGERS 15. OUR GIRL HYPE 16. THE REGRETTES 18. KIM PETRAS 19. BAYWAVES 20. KISSISSIPPI 21. SO YOU WANNA BE A POP STAR? FEATURES 22. CHVRCHES 36. PARQUET COURTS 38. HALFNOISE REVIEWS 40. ARCTIC MONKEYS 41. BEACH HOUSE 44. COURTNEY BARNETT 45. CHARLES WATSON 46. FATHER JOHN MISTY
S tephen
Editor / @stephenackroyd
GET OUT 48. FRIENDLY FIRES 49. FALL OUT BOY 50. SHAME 51. DUA LIPA 52. ALL POINTS EAST 53. SLAM DUNK 54. FRIGHTENED RABBIT
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Editor Stephen Ackroyd Deputy Editor Victoria Sinden Associate Editor Ali Shutler Contributing Editors Jamie Muir, Martyn Young Events Liam James Ward Scribblers Alex Cabre, Alexander Bradley, Alice Mortimer, Ben Jolley, Chris Taylor, Ciarán Steward, Dan Harrison, Eala McAlister, Eleanor Osada, Jake Hawkes, Jasleen Dhindsa, Jenessa Williams, Jessica Goodman, Jessie Atkinson, Josh Williams, Rob Mair, Sam Taylor, Steven Loftin Snappers Corinne Cumming, Eleanor Osada, Sarah Louise Bennett, Will Byington Doodlers Russell Taysom P U B L I S H E D F RO M
W E LCO M E TOT H E B U N K E R.CO M U N I T 10, 23 G RA N G E RO A D, H A S T I N G S, T N34 2R L
All material copyright (c). All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, in whole or in part, without the express written permission of The Bunker Publishing Ltd. Disclaimer: While every effort is made to ensure the information in this magazine is correct, changes can occur which affect the accuracy of copy, for which The Bunker Publishing Ltd holds no responsibility. The opinions of the contributors do not necessarily bear a relation to those of Dork or its staff and we disclaim liability for those impressions. Distributed nationally.
BACK PAGE 56. PHOEBE BRIDGERS
On The Stereo jump ahead of most other things you’ll hear in 2018.
Let’s Eat Grandma - I’m All Ears
Matt Maltese - Bad Contestant
The sound of the future - by which we don’t mean two weeks from next Tuesday, but something more like the year 3042 - Let’s Eat Grandma’s second album is a light-speed
Our home-grown South London crooner’s debut album has knocked back a week, meaning it’s no longer going directly head to head with Father John Misty’s 3
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new album. It’s a comparison worth making, though, when it comes to one of our brightest new talents.
Boy Azooga - 1,2, Kung Fu!
If you’ve heard ‘Loner Boogie’, you’ll know Boy Azooga know how to raise the temperature. Their debut
album is coming next month, and it’s really quite exciting.
The 1975 - Music For Cars
It’s brilliant. It’s the best thing we’ve heard all year. It’s so exciting. Really, we could see this making them the biggest band in the world one day. Yeah. We’re on about the EP.
.TFW you’re pretty sure you put deodorant on this morning, but you don’t want to make it too obvious you’re checking to make certain. S .
Update. IF IT’S NOT IN HERE, IT’S NOT HAPPENING.
What’s going on with MØ, then?
Denmark superstar MØ is a magnet for bangers and buzzy collabs - what’s her secret? Writing straight from the heart. Words: Jessie Atkinson.
“T
he best songs I write are always when I’m feeling very emotional about something,” MØ considers, driving down the Californian highway on speakerphone.
“Of course, when you’re in love or you’re heartbroken: that’s the classic because you feel so much so strongly at such a vulnerable time. Another is that feeling of longing... “I get that feeling a lot. I’m longing for something in the future, but I’m also longing for something that was in the past: those kind of things can also be very effective for me when I write a song.” MØ writes chart-smashing electronic pop filled with gorgeous lyrics. Songs like ‘Lean On’ - a collaboration with Major Lazer and DJ Snake - which has been streamed over a billion times on Spotify. Day-to-day, when she’s living life as Karen Marie Aagaard Ørsted, she’s still a poetic inspiration. It turns out there’s a reason
“The best songs I write are always when I’m feeling very emotional”
for that: MØ is “an emo”. Her words, but words nonetheless difficult to disagree with: this is an artist who has been positively fizzing with fervour since birth. As a kid, her favourite Destiny’s Child song was (what else) ‘Emotion’. It meant so much to her that she used to wake up in the middle of the night if it came on the radio. The “several times” this happened, it made her cry. How emo is that! A darn shame, then, that she missed the part of Beyoncé’s Coachella performance that saw Destiny’s Child enter stage right. Because before she walked away, MØ gushes, that show “was so overwhelming; so perfect; so amazing; so astonishing. I had my hands on my face before I walked
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away like ‘Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!” Oh, by the way, MØ was one of the warm-ups for that Beyoncé show. Of the Californian festival, she glows with ardour: “Staring out over the mountains and the Ferris wheel and the sky that is starting to go dark is something I’m never going to forget. It was at that hour of the day when it was still light, but it was, like, the magic hour, so it was a special moment. Not to get sentimental, but I’m from Denmark and playing music at Coachella is like a fucking…” Overcome, she stops there. If you’re wondering just how you go from Denmark to Coachella, then you should consider writing music the way MØ does: “straight from the heart.” Although you’re probably not talented or emotional enough. Sorry. When MØ is writing a song (sometimes alone, sometimes “with a bunch of people” and “sometimes with one producer”), she promises herself “to go with whatever the fucking feelings are saying.” Apparently, what MØ’s feelings say are things like: “I wish I could turn my heart to stone” and “I wander on, and I will never come back.” Both of those lyrics come from recent EP ‘When I Was Young’. The first is from
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(you’ve guessed it) ‘Turn My Heart To Stone’, which is “about being in a relationship with someone who you know isn’t good for you, but you just want to play dumb and pretend it’s fine.” The second, from ‘Run Away’, a song laced with longing, is inspired by her childhood best friend (also the inspiration for 2017 banger ‘Nights With You’) and their youthful desire to escape suburbia (“fuck the suburbs” she says, cheerfully). Now she’s as far away from the suburbs as she’s physically able to be, she’s planning on staying there. Another album should do the trick. There’s no “official statement” yet, but you’d better believe it’s coming. And soon. With “no time for a proper vacation this year”, she’s writing songs, playing shows and doing promo so that you, dear reader, can “feel liberated and [unworried] about your phone or where you’re going next.” At her live shows, she wants you to “bask in the moment… to feel a connection… to let completely loose and not worry about how you look or being perfect.” It sounds, in effect, as though MØ wants to resurrect from the grave your ability to feel emotion. If anyone can do it, it’s going to be her. P MØ’s
single ‘Nostalgia’ is out now.
Hype. ESSENTIAL NEW MUSIC.
The Regrettes 16
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Los Angeles punk quartet The Regrettes are touring the UK this month - and you’re about to start seeing a lot more of them. Words: Alex Cabre
“I
don’t want to think about it, or I’ll totally psych myself out,” Lydia Night affirms over the phone from her native Los Angeles.
a-half-minutes of ricocheting garage pop with body image and gender stereotypes in its lyrical crosshairs. It was a powerful mission statement and one that set the tone for things to come, though The 17-yearThe Facts it wasn’t easy old leader of for Lydia to garage-pop + From Los Angeles, US bare her soul outfit The + For fans of Girlpool, so extensively Regrettes is Cherry Glazerr, Tacocat so early on. referring to + Check out ‘Come “It’s such a the band’s Through’ vulnerable scheduled + Social @regrettesband song; it takes a appearance on + See them live: The band lot to stand up Jimmy Kimmel tour the UK from 19thin a crowd and Live! tomorrow 30th May, including a stop say the things night, where at Dot to Dot, then they’re that I say. I they will knew I need to back for Reading & Leeds perform get over it for tracks from in August myself and the their recently sake of other people. I think released ‘Attention Seeker’ EP. it’s a song that needs to be Guitarist Genessa Gariano, heard.” bassist Sage Chavis and Her bravery paid off. drummer Maxx Morando are “Honestly, at almost every the rest of the band; today, show someone will come they’re off doing “whatever up to us and say, ‘That song they do to prepare,” says helped me get through this…’ Lydia. “Genessa is probably Someone said it got them at home drawing, Sage is through their sex change. probably doing her makeup There are a lot of really crazy, or at the gym, and then Maxx, cool, incredible things that god knows. He’s a wildcard; I have come from that. It’s never know what he’s doing.” amazing.” Playing live on one of the The genesis of Lydia’s most popular talk shows in passion for activism the world is, of course, a big occurred when she was in deal, but the young bunch seventh grade – that’s Year have already had a fair few 8 – when her best friend big deals in their short time Grace introduced her to together. Since forming Rookie, the uber-hip online properly two and a half years publication which promotes ago after initially meeting at female empowerment as one music school, they’ve shared of its key values. “I was like, stages with Sleigh Bells and what’s a feminist?” Lydia Kate Nash, visited the UK recalls. “Grace totally told me with SWMRS and on top of all everything I needed to know. that, the start of 2017 saw the From then on I’ve been all release of their gutsy, dooabout it.” wop-stroke-riot-grrrl debut Across the album, she album ‘Feel Your Feelings, chooses her battles carefully Fool!’ (other big hitters include the Penned in the deepest snarling ‘Picture Perfect’, and swathes of her teenage ‘Seashore’, a chirpy anthem years, the album’s voice about not letting yourself be is unmistakeably and put down) making sure there’s unapologetically Lydia’s. room for downtime. “The majority of that record “There needs to be a was written before the band balance. Not all of the music even formed. I had like fifty that I write is blatant and demos before going into it, in your face. I think that I from a three-year period,” she have a strong perspective, explains of its origins. all my music has that, but One of those demos that perspective doesn’t eventually evolved into ‘A necessarily have to be Living Human Girl’, two-and-
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some political statement. Sometimes it’s more a statement about exactly how I’m feeling and that in itself is a bold, vulnerable move.” Nowadays the band spend more time writing together, for the sake of convenience as well as enjoyment. “It’s great writing a song when Maxx can immediately play a drum beat along with it, and then have Sage come in with the bass line or guitar part. I write the majority of the lyrics, but if I’m like, ‘Ah fuck, what rhymes with door?’ They’re like, ‘Poor!’ or ‘Whore!’ and I’m like, perfect!” A result of the band’s new-found team dynamic is the bouncy lead single from the ‘Attention Seeker’ EP, ‘Come Through’, the video for which sees the band giving Lydia’s jerk boyfriend his just desserts, in more ways than one. The clip was directed by Claire Vogel, a serial collaborator of Lydia’s. “Claire is my favourite director ever. I told her what I wanted [in terms of the] musical aspect; then she brought in the storyline. We filmed it at this amazing mid-century house. It was seriously the coolest house ever.” One shot from the video stands out. Dressed in a striking blue suit, Lydia spins lackadaisically in a chair, tearing pages from an old book and tossing them over her shoulder. It’s a fitting metaphor for the way The Regrettes use their music to rip up out-dated attitudes of the past, having an absolute blast all the while. With an extensive US tour just around the corner and a slot at Reading & Leeds, you can expect to hear more from The Regrettes very soon (as for new music, Lydia promises “there will be something new in the world” by the end of the year). For now, she’s off to prepare for the big show tomorrow. Spoiler alert, they absolutely smash it. Another rung surpassed by a band heading defiantly for the top. P The
Regrettes are touring the UK from 19th May.
Cover story
l ove dead is
On their third album, ‘Love Is Dead’, CHVRCHES have worked with some of the brightest minds in pop for the first time but rather than lose themselves in the zeitgeist, they’ve never been more themselves. Words: Ali Shutler. Photos: Sarah Louise Bennett.
“I
t felt like this random, scrappy gang of people managed to somehow trick people into actually giving us a shot,” starts Lauren Mayberry on CHVRCHES’ story so far. Since the release of ‘The
third member of the trio, Iain Cook, “was that we wanted it to be more live sounding, moving in the direction of live drums and guitars and bass. “Beyond that, we don’t tend to over theorise or over discuss things before we get in the room together, that tends to be an energy and a direction that takes care of itself.” “Also it was more just the concept of taking our time with this one,” Martin adds. “I loved the frantic, intense way we worked on the first two albums, but it didn’t feel right to do this time around. To me, a third album is a defining statement, certainly in the history of the bands I like. “To us, it was really important to just slow it down a little bit and write more songs. Right off the bat, of course, that takes more time. We easily doubled the number of songs we’ve written for any other project or any other album in the past.” “We couldn’t have done any more exploring,” he promises. “We could have spent five years on this and still, this would have been the album I’d be happy with.” “It feels like at this point, we’re more comfortable with each other, ourselves and the band,” adds Lauren. “This record sounds like a more distilled version of what we were trying to do on the first one, the more direct stuff is enhanced, and the weirder, more macabre stuff is enhanced as well.” Despite the wild ride and all they’ve achieved, CHVRCHES have always looked in control. They’ve built this band from the ground up. “Even though it was moving exceptionally quickly, we were always in control of what we were trying
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“People have never been harder to please” Martin Doherty, CHVRCHES. London, March 2018.
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S
Mother We Share’ in the autumn of 2012, everything around the band has been a constant whirlwind. “It was a busy time, and we were conscious of wanting to put two albums out in reasonably quick succession. There weren’t people telling us we needed to do that; it just felt right to us. You don’t want to lose momentum. “We were lucky with what happened to us on the first record, but if you sit around and think about the second record for too long, I think you’d get lost inside your own thoughts,” warns Lauren. Her bandmate Martin Doherty agrees: “The longer you leave it, the more insurmountable the task of a second album seems.” This time, they took their time in crafting new album ‘Love Is Dead’. “For us, it doesn’t feel like we’ve been gone that long because we took a few months off at the end of 2016, then we started writing at the beginning of 2017,” Lauren explains. “In our minds, it’s what do they mean we’ve been gone for two years?’” ‘Love is Dead’ is a different CHVRCHES record, but it’s the one they’ve been building towards since the group were scratching around Glasgow on their own. Labelled a political pop band from the get-go, their third album amplifies both those sides, dousing them in neon and pushing them to the front. But there’s more to it than that: there’s friendship, celebration and a belief in one another as the band craft a kaleidoscopic landscape that offers escape but also pulls apart the real world. “The only thing we really talked about before we went into the studio,” considers the
“I’m done apologising and trying to appease people”
to build and the identity we were trying to shape as writers and producers,” offers Martin. “There was a lot going on around the band that maybe we had less control over. It was a different time. Conversations about misogyny were not mainstream topics.” “So much of what we were doing at the time was reactive,” reasons Lauren. “It went from putting a song on the internet, to something quite substantially different in a few years. I do look back on that, and maybe we did seem more cool and in control of it from the outside. But then when people ask us about the conversation around #metoo and stuff like that now, I didn’t have it figured out at all at the time. You just have to ask yourself how you want to do things and what feels right, that’s always what we come back to. Let’s run through a scenario and then what feels right.” CHVRCHES have always been a tough band to place.
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The
Cartel Zac Farro may still be best known for his role behind the kit for Paramore, but with their latest EP, his other band HalfNoise are far more than a mere side-project. Words: Ali Shutler.
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Reviews. The Big One
in another life, been an Alex Turner solo album. There’s no doubt it’s a record succeeding on its own terms. Its swirling, South Review everything Yorkshire Lando The ‘beard’ Calrissian eeeee vibe is as deliberate as it If Arctic Monkeys’ banger-lite new is confidently direction doesn’t cause delivered. controversy, then Alex To criticise Turner’s weirdy beardy a record for definitely has. Perhaps being great it’s because we’ve seen at what it our Al grow from a boy into a man, but his hairy means to be face is almost definitely seems almost the cultural shock of the churlish, and decade (what? OTT? US?! yet that lack - Ed). It’s too much of a of a single shock for us. Sorry, Alex. playlist friendly gem sticks in the mind - as if planet indie’s mightiest heroes are making a point of refusing to use their most powerful The lyrical flair is in full flow. weapon. Indeed, at times Alex Turner When once sense is dulled, has never been in finer form. though, the others strengthen. From the painfully self-aware At one point, we find Turner opening jibe (“I just wanted to taking the role of Mark, be one of the Strokes”), to ‘One receptionist at the titular resort, Point Perspective’’s ludicrous hooting like a spooked owl “dancing in my underpants”, about sideboob. The rock ‘n’ the wordplay often drifts into roll teddy boy is replaced with a a stream of consciousness piano plonking lobby lothario. that’s sharper and more cutting A concept album about working than seems strictly fair. It’s the in space age hospitality might delivery that will split opinion. not have been what we expected Put simply, ‘Tranquility Base’ from five years of post ‘AM’ has few, if any, of those stadium build-up, but it’s what we’re uniting moments. It’s a record getting. with - in the traditional sense What one makes of Arctic no singles at all. Eleven tracks Monkeys’ evolution is all about of the expected underlying high perspective. Undoubtedly an quality, not one of them creates album of quality and depth, it the pulse raising adrenaline takes repeated listens to not of a ‘Do I Wanna Know?’ or hang on for that one earworm ‘Fluorescent Adolescent’. moment. In the traditional There’s not even a ‘Crying sense, we’d call ‘Tranquility Lightning’. The closest thing Base...’ a grower. Arctic ‘Four Out Of Five’ - is basically Monkeys’ biggest gamble to a TripAdvisor ad put to music. date, if they flourish on their The rules are very different. moon base resort or not is It’s no surprise that subjective. Just like everything ‘Tranquility Base...’ could have, else. P Stephen Ackroyd
Arctic Monkeys Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino It’s been five years since Arctic Monkeys last dropped an album - the iconic ‘AM’. Now, they’re finally back, but ‘Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino’ isn’t the record anyone was expecting.
eeeee LABEL: DOMINO RELEASED: 11TH MAY 2018 LISTEN TO: FOUR OUT OF FIVE, STAR TREATMENT, ONE POINT PERSPECTIVE
E
verything is subjective. While
we may strive for an simplistic ‘good’ or ‘bad’ sticky label to attach to everything we see, from culture to politics, at the end of the day beauty remains in the eye of the beholder. In the case of Arctic Monkeys’ sixth album, ‘Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino’, it’s a truth even more relevant than usual. For well over a decade now, the Sheffield sensations have managed to walk a tightrope between critical acclaim and populist satisfaction. Matching clever lyrics with a generous supply of bangers, they played to base instinct and a higher calling in the same, retromaniac slip and slide. A timeline of their singles to date does a good job of reflecting the best of postmillennial British indie, always a touch smarter than their peers. On ‘Tranquility Base...’, they’ve only brought half of that championship winning game.
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The official verdict on everything.
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Artificial Pleasure
The Bitter End
eeeee A night on the town can go a whole variety of ways. From unstoppable highs on top of the world to never-ending lows that seem unreachable to jump out of - if there’s an emotion about, then we’re pretty sure it’s been experienced in late-night frivolity. No matter the era - it’s there, and that’s really where Artificial Pleasure come into their own. A shining beacon of the fun to be had in dazzling pop hooks and sophisticated nods, it’s a suited ’n’ booted eyes view that has thrived through every glorious moment so far. ‘The Bitter End’, whilst sounding like the sort of farewell voyage into the abyss we all want to avoid, is the ultimate statement of the world they’re creating. P Jamie Muir
Tracy Island
Make your own Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino
Recommended
Hey, Artificial Pleasure, recommend us some stuff... Last good record you heard: Insecure Men by Insecure Men Favourite ever book: The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov TV show you couldn’t live without: RuPaul’s Drag Race
7th heaven
Best purchase of this year: Sodastream Anything else you’d recommend? You have to go to I Will Kill Again in Homerton
Conexão EP
eeeee Having grown up in various countries and dedicated her first track ’3.33am’ to the loss of her mother, Amber Mark is older in spirit than she is in years. A new breed of millennial pop star that isn’t afraid to tackle millennial issues, ‘Conexao’ moves forward with effortless cool. ‘Love Is Stronger Than Pride’ sees her commit to a lover over neo-soul-infused RnB, while the title-track boasts the sort of clubby piano that makes it equally effective as a bar lounge soundtrack as it does Pinterest mantra “everything is connected”. Don’t pigeonhole her too early though; the key change towards the end of ‘Love Me Right’ proves that she is willing to ascend to surprising heights in her quest for action, not words. Sit back, and watch Amber soar. Jenessa Williams
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eeeee Beach House may have been aiming for an album of “rebirth and rejuvenation”, but their seventh fulllength is a mixed bag.
Amber Mark
Apparently, Alex Turner is ‘into’ making models of the titular ‘Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino’ from the cover of the band’s new album. But while he (probably) uses expensive, proper materials, we prefer a more authentic route. So here’s how to make your own version, Dork style. 1. First up, you’ll need a template. Head to readdork.com/tbhac to download ours, then print it out. 2. Working from the biggest section down, cut out each section from thick cardboard. That gives you ‘volume’. 3. Glue the main sections together. PVA should do the job. 4. Use a short wooden pole - a skewer is fine if you’re a kebab fan - and attach the rotating section and sign. You should be able to easily push this through the card. Secure with more PVA. 5. Spray paint the whole thing in glorious beige. Charge your mates £80 a go to see the finished results.
Beach House 7
‘7’
is Beach House’s 7th album (which probably explains the name). In the preceding six records, they’ve established themselves as one of the biggest dream-pop groups around and ‘7’ doesn’t try all that hard to tread new ground. From opener ‘Dark Spring’ it’s clear that the album is happy to exist in Beach House’s wellworn niche, with ethereal vocals and a meandering pace lulling the listener into a trance. The trouble is you’ve heard it all before. Throughout ‘7’ there’s a real sense that the band may have finally run out of ideas, and there’s a lack of the underlying spark that originally made their work so enjoyable. At its best, the album
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approaches the level of one of MGMT’s more tranquil offerings (think ‘Congratulations’, from the album of the same name), but at its worst, it sinks into a dull slog that seems to drag on far too long. Closing track ‘Last Ride’’s runtime of exactly seven minutes is a neat touch, but the song itself feels like a self-indulgent slow burner that never actually goes anywhere, much like the album on the whole. ‘7’ isn’t an awful album, but it is an incredibly average one. Fans of Beach House will find some tracks worth listening to, and everyone else will enjoy having it on in the background, but it’s hard to believe anyone will be genuinely excited to listen back once the last song is over. P Jake Hawkes
Get Out. IF IT’S ON STAGE, IT’S IN HERE.
Fever pitch
Friendly Fires are back! Back!! Back!!! It’s a comeback that for a long time looked as though it wouldn’t happen, but Friendly Fires are raring to go, and firing on all cylinders. Words: Jamie Muir. Photo: Sarah Louise Bennett. 50
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A
lot has happened since the last time Friendly Fires took the stage in early 2014. Their
whereabouts became the sort of urban legend that usually accompanies long-lost friends or icons of a time gone by. Where are Friendly Fires? What are they up to? Are they still a band? The questions buzzed and for a while there was… silence. That wait, and those questions, abound till tonight - with ‘Love Like Waves’ unveiled to the world and mere hours later, Friendly Fires are back. “I’ve missed you so much,” exclaims frontman Ed, to screams of a sold-out Brixton, immediately falling back under that Friendly Fires charm with the opening crescendo of ‘Lovesick’. It sets the tone for the night, one that feels one part homecoming, part vital reminder of the wondrous hits and breaks that spans across their two albums and one part reinvigorated showcase of a band returning to claim the crown that’s been waiting for them all these years. In that time, nobody has come close to stepping into their shoes - something that really becomes apparent as they sharply whip through an opening flurry of ‘Jump In The Pool’ and ‘Running Away’. The striped screens and dazzling lights can’t keep up with how infectious and onpoint the band in front of them are, delivering a larger than life sound primed for huge festival fields with one banger (‘White Diamonds’) followed
by another (‘Skeleton Boy’) followed by another (‘In The Hospital’) and so it continues. Unrelenting and unravelling a joyful carnival of sounds, electric fever and mass euphoria - it’s not just a band stepping out on stage, but a trip somewhere truly special. Ed is a non-stop body of unstoppable energy, leading not just the rest of the band but the entire room through an experience nobody is likely to forget in a hurry - with the rainbow-soaked heights of ‘Live Those Days Tonight’ triggering communal bliss. Written across their faces is something tangible, a warmth and happiness that feels emotional every time they round out a track or Ed speaks their thanks. A feeling of love and realisation that thousands want them back, and it only serves to take Brixton to another level. People asked what Friendly Fires would be or even mean when they came back. In 2018, what would their role be after all this time away? At Brixton tonight, Friendly Fires staked their claim for the globe, thriving with the sort of swagger and enticing cocktail that should everyone sipping and throwing shapes under their disco ball in no time with a gig that may sit amongst their very best when all is said and done. Festival headline slots and the biggest stages of their career beckon, and Friendly Fires are in a class of their own - meaning more to them than it may have done ever before. Scrap your plans; Friendly Fires have changed the rulebook. P
Champions
Fall Out Boy become the band they’ve always threatened to be at The O2 Embracing the past, celebrating the future and enjoying the moment, Fall Out Boy look at home on the big stage. Words: Ali Shutler. Photo: Sarah Louise Bennett.
F
all Out Boy have been an arena band for over a decade now.
Before the hiatus, they were selling out Wembley Arena and they’ve only gotten bigger since their return, their legacy mixing with a new generation of outsider anthems. Ten years ago, they were the underdogs banding together against the world. Tonight, they embrace it; Pete, Joe, Andy and Patrick look properly at home on the big stage. The opening one-two of ‘The Phoenix’ and ‘Irresistible’ welcomes The O2 to the slick celebratory dance the band now channels. Backed by flames, fireworks and a room full of people who know every word, Fall Out Boy share a smirk knowing they’ve got this. It’s a flawless start before ‘Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down’ proves the band have lost
none of that raging heart. The urgency still burning after all these years, Patrick stands back as the room unites under one voice. From here on out, there’s no holding back as Fall Out Boy charge through old and new. ‘Thnks Fr Th Mmrs’ is delivered with a wicked grin, ‘Centuries’ is bursting with promise and a never die swagger while ‘Dance, Dance’ is played from a floating platform at the back of the room. With plenty of showstopping moments, it would be easy for Fall Out Boy to let the flashy lights and pyrotechnic bursts lead the way, but that’s not how this band does things. Front, centre and always in control, the group embrace the spotlight and use it to make their connection with the room shine bright. From ‘Take This To Your Grave’ to now, Fall Out Boy have constantly changed, but tonight, everything falls into place. This is the band Fall Out Boy have been threatening to become since the start. Bigger than emo, pop-punk or radio-friendly sing-alongs, Fall Out Boy have broken out and become something special, unique and powerfully important. P