The Roundhouse is dark, the crowd is silent, and the lights blare up. Pale Waves are here, and they’re not going to be quiet about it.
The indie-rock quartet are back after an extended break, both due to the pandemic and due to finishing their latest album, Who Am I?, and its follow-up. There was some fear that Pale Waves couldn’t capitalise on the runaway success of their first album and previous tours this late in the game: as lead vocalist Heather Baron-Gracie says, this is ‘their biggest tour yet’, but one that comes a full year after their last album.
However, none of this absence shows, as the band are on top-notch form, balancing the hits and lesser-known album tracks with ease. The setlist moves through the dream-pop of ‘Noises’ to the stomp of the upcoming single ‘Jealousy’ without putting a foot wrong. It’s easy to see the development in the group’s lyrical and musical style, as both gains added depth in performance. Anthemic tracks are looped in amongst aching romantic paeans to lost love, with brief sideswipes into 1975-style crowd-pleasers. It’s a setlist guaranteed to satisfy both novice and hardcore Pale Waves fans by taking a panoramic look over their short but intense creative output.
The band builds on their excellent support acts, Bitters and Hot Milk, by allowing Heather Baron-Gracie to come to the fore. This tour is all about cultivating strong female leads, and Baron-Gracie exemplifies this to the hilt. She has an excellent stage presence, commanding the massive crowd with ease and gorgeous vocals that sound as if they were ripped from the studio without losing any of the emotional, lyrical content of the work within the large venue. Her voice shines regardless of whether it’s set against an acoustic guitar or indie dreamscape. She is also playful with the crowd, be it throwing flowers into the audience like a modern-day Morrissey or donning an LGBTQ+ flag. Baron-Gracie is utterly compelling to watch.
Ciara Doran has only grown as a drummer over the past two years, delivering beautifully addictive beats with ease and style, and Baron-Gracie deservedly spotlights them at multiple points in the evening to the joy of the crowd. They are ably supported by the rest of the rhythm section, Hugo Silvani, and Charlie Wood. Although the male members of the band don’t get quite as much attention on or off stage, they are reliably fantastic at what they do.
In fact, the solidity of the foursome, despite having spent much of the pandemic recording separately, is a testament to their musical talent. It really seems like they’ve never been away: I was transported back to 2018, and the original NME-backed fluster around the group. Since then, it’s obvious that they’ve only grown as musicians, which lifts tracks that seemed a little lackluster on record into crowd-enthusing bangers.
The four-piece barrel through a set containing some of their greatest hits, from the romantic ‘Heavenly’ and ‘Television Romance’ to acoustic ‘Odd Ones Out’, alongside songs like ‘Kiss’ and ‘Red’ which get the crowd whipped into a frenzy. The love for Pale Waves rippled through the audience alongside the scorching melodies, creating a sense of reciprocal joy from band to the audience and back again that was at times genuinely moving.
Encore songs ‘She’s My Religion’ and ‘There’s a Honey’ ended a beautifully performed, tremendously emotional, and insanely enjoyable evening. Pale Waves have always been a band built on critical noise that could have seemed unfulfilled in reality: instead, they’ve emerged from the pandemic as one of the most exciting live acts on the circuit. Long may their reign continue.
Words by Issy Flower
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