Off the back of their support slot with rock heavy weights Royal Blood and an impressive festival season, The Amazons head back out on the road for a string of headline shows across the UK. On Wednesday evening, The Amazons took to the stage at Bristol O2 celebrating the release of their third studio record ‘How Will I Know If Heaven Will Find Me?’.
It was an obvious well-needed return to the stages in their own right, it was their time to shine and boy did they; the evening was rounded with emotive outbursts and praises coming from vocalist Matthew Thomson, a showcase of warmth and passion in songs such as ‘Bloodrush’ and a stripped back version of ‘Nightdriving’, was contrasted with a riotous performance where both the band and the crowd let loose during ‘Ready For Something’ and ‘Doubt It’.
Talking of the confinements of lockdown and stilted creativity, ‘How Will I Know…?’ is a record longing to be heard live and a record built on the foundations of cathartic song writing, escapism and sincerity, which was perfectly translated that evening. They showcased a slew of seductive guitar licks, hefty measures of distortion, and rousing choruses in tracks such as ‘Ultraviolet’ and fan-favourite ‘Junk Food Forever’. It was euphoric for not only the fans but the band themselves. They were at home on stage, knowing they no longer needed to prove themselves as firm favourites in the British alternative scene - because they proved that long ago.
In between the soundscapes of jangly guitars and electrically charged hooks, the first few notes of ‘Northern Sky’ played out across the academy, phones and lighters rose to light up the entire room. For a brief second, vocalist Matthew Thomson thought the house lights were still on until the realisation hit him - that in fact, the crowd, their fans, had the whole place alight. And the crowd certainly spoke that evening, an emotive performance from The Amazons joined by the crowd singing the song that hadn't even been released for a month, word for word; a hair-raising moment in the evening that will surely be remembered for a long time.
The Reading crew finished the show with a Black Magic finale. The entire floor was bouncing, waves of arms in the air, bodies surfing, and echoes of the crowd screaming ‘black magic, come on’. It’s one that never fails to please, one that was written to be sung back, one for the clubs and the festival crowds, that one where you can forget about everything for three minutes and go wild.
Despite being in some sort of mood at the beginning of the evening due to hitting traffic on the way, the crazy parking situation I found myself in and the shitty weather, I left The Amazons with a beaming smile and not a care in the world - well, the only care being that I wanted to see them again as soon as possible.
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