Circa Waves are going places. Literally – the Liverpool-born four-piece have just wrapped up a massive UK tour (including a show at the mammoth O2 Academy Brixton), and they’re showing no signs of letting up anytime soon. Their set at London’s 350-capacity Under The Bridge marks the band’s last UK show ‘for the foreseeable future’, as dates in Europe and the USA fill the band’s schedule for the next few months.
We hate to break it to you, but we’ve got a feeling that you won’t be seeing Circa Waves play a venue as intimate as Under The Bridge for a very long time. Tonight’s gig – presented by Q Magazine as part of their fantastic Q Awards Gigs series – serves to cement their position as one of this country’s most exciting live acts, and we think that it’s only a matter of time before they’re selling out huge venues across the country.
Their thirteen-song set (made up entirely of tracks from their debut album Young Chasers) is a barnstorming run-through of some of the year’s best indie-rock tracks. The urgently anthemic Fossil is a mid-set highlight, while an early airing of fan favourite (and recent single) Stuck In Your Teeth serves to kickstart the night’s first singalong.
The band’s live energy seriously can’t be understated – they’re constantly moving, and this makes them thoroughly entertaining to watch. We’d even argue that they’re better live than they are on record; there’s something about their sound that suits a room full of people, and their onstage energy is nothing short of contagious.
A special mention must go to the band’s charismatic frontman Kieran Shudall. Not only is he a charmingly scruffy bundle of rampant energy, but a mid-song incident with his microphone stand may well have cost him his two front teeth. Despite this, we’re pleased to say that he soldiered on; a rampant run-through of album cut 101 rounds off the main portion of the set, before the inevitable finale of radio darling T-Shirt Weather serves to both close the show and get the entire room bouncing.
We can only see Circa Waves getting bigger and better over the next couple of years. They’ve got the tunes, they’ve got the look, they’ve got the talent, and they’ve got the fans. Nothing’s ever certain, but we know one thing for sure – we can’t wait to see them again.