gigs & glitter.

Pale Waves – SWG3 – Glasgow – September 21^st 2018

Being used more often as a gig venue now, SWG3 is becoming a wee bit more familiar. So when I strolled confidently over  to the wrong door and announced to the bouncer that we were here to see Pale Waves, he rolled his eyes, and pointed across the yard.

Ah well. Next time. Fourteen hundredth time lucky.

Once inside the right venue, we grabbed a drink and wandered down as far as we could towards the stage. The room was already packed out; I wasn’t sure what kind of crowd to expect, whether it would be mainly girls or guys, young or old, but there was such a mixture of people that you definitely could not pin point a specific crowd range that the band appeals to – there were people in front of me who looked about 16 or 17, and people behind who could be ages with my mum and dad.

The lights went down, and all of a sudden Cardi B’s “Bodak Yellow” was blasting round the room. Absolutely not the entrance track I was expecting, but everyone was bopping along in excitement.

Ciara, Hugo, Charlie and Heather took to the stage and kicked off their hour long set with smash single, “Television Romance.”

TR was followed up by, my personal favourite, “Kiss.” The crowd, familiar with the album which had only been released the previous week, sang along almost as loud as the band themselves.

Heather Baron-Gracie is the perfect front woman; from crowd interaction – emotionally connecting with the fans and music at the exact same time – to bouncing around with an infectious amount of energy.

Pale Waves managed to squish all the favourites into their early curfew-ed set,  from “Eighteen” to “She”, and “New Years Eve” to “Noises”. The crowd were hooked from beginning to ‘end.’

The band left the stage to a host of screams and cheers, and re-appeared a few minutes later for their encore of “My Obsession” and “There’s a Honey.” My Obsession was performed with Heather draped in a Scotland flag which had made its way from the crowd onto the stage just in time; which put the Glaswegian crowd firmly in the palm of her hand.

As the crowd filtered out of SWG3 before the venue turned into a club for the rest of the evening, there were people singing the praises of Pale Waves from all angles. Even the pouring rain outside wasn’t going to dampen anyone’s spirits.

Full Set:

Television Romance

Kiss

Eighteen

Heavenly

Red

New Years Eve

Black

She

Came in Close

The Tide

One More Time

Noises

*******

My Obsession

There’s a Honey