Source: Rhian Westbury
We first stumbled across Prides just five weeks ago when they hit the Festival Republic stage at Reading Festival as we were trying to fill our time between seeing Bastille and Mumford and Sons. To say we were suitably impressed would be an understatement, to the point that we downloaded their debut album as soon as we got back to our accommodation (because it’s better than camping, just FYI).
So when we heard they were set to support The Wombats at the iconic Alexandra Palace, we knew if they could put in half as much energy into this support slot as they did on that Friday night all those weeks ago, it was really going to be something special.
Kicking off their support set was ‘Out Of The Blue‘ – a synth-pop smack in the face in terms of infectiously catchy beats and choral vocals building up during the bridge – the perfect way to catch the attention of any newcomers to the Prides party. Next up was ‘Higher Love‘, the band’s most recent single, followed by the title track from their debut album release, ‘The Way Back Up’.
Bang in the middle of their seven song set list was ‘Little Danger‘, one of the real standout tracks on their album and just as good live – a song that starts off slow and subtle and builds to something that you just cannot possibly stand still to. ‘Just Sat It’ brought the tone down just a bit before nearing the end with ‘I Should Know You Better‘; a real summer belter which gets you hooked from the first note with its simple but effective keyboard opener.
Ending the set was perhaps the band’s most notable track ‘Messiah‘. This is what really puts Prides on the map and grabs the attention of all within its close vicinity and solidifies their talents in this rising genre. Prides are not a band who are afraid to experiment with their sound and this set shows off just a handful of their biggest and best.
One day (and one day soon, we imagine) Prides will be headlining this and many more venues like it. But for now it was the turn of The Wombats, a band who have been at the forefront of the UK indie/new wave scene since they burst into our Saturday nights all those years ago with ‘Let’s Dance To Joy Division‘ – a track which seems to have gained its classic status through its persistance to join the set list at any Propaganda club night and Student Union bar piss-up ever since.
Leaving ‘Let’s Dance…‘ to the end of the set list, it was surprising just how many tracks The Wombats have under their belt that people could be forgiven in forgetting. Tracks such as ‘Moving To New York‘ (their debut single released back in 2006 – who knew?!), ‘Kill The Director‘ with it’s anthemic sing-a-long of ‘This is no Bridget Jones‘, as well as latest release ‘Greek Tragedy‘ and 2011s’ ‘Techno Fan‘ and ‘1996‘, give proof to the longevity of this band’s career and talents to create such dance-friendly, happy-go-lucky slices of modern indie pop.
As we said before, we can’t imagine that it will be long until Prides they are headlining venues of this capacity and selling them out with ease. You’d be best off seeing them whilst you can, especially seeing as they have a UK tour announced starting soon. How convenient!
Check our a few photos from their set below.
Source: Rhian Westbury
