Prides, with support, at The Ironworks, Inverness on the 5th of February, 2015. A review.
Prides kicked off their UK tour on Thursday starting with the first of eight dates in The Ironworks.
The night was pushed into motion with support from one of our favourite new-folk gals Alice Bentley. Alice set the gears in motion with a warm and enjoyable 7 piece set. Alice’s music is always evolving, maturing and improving.
Having recently played a gig as part of Celtic Connections in Glasgow, 2015 is already shaping up to be a good year for Alice.
Alice was 16 the first time I heard her perform Scottish Rain and I remember thinking how impressive that somebody so young could write something so wisened, years have past and I still find myself thinking that!
As always, Bentley provided us with a well judged and sweet cover, this time Jackson 5’s ‘I Want You Back’. Alice promises that come summer 2015 she shall be releasing an EP, for which we eagerly await.
Next we welcomed London Indie band Flyte to our Inverness stage for the first time.
Flyte seem to be one of those bands that appeared magically one day in London Town fully formed, with a tight and flawless sound. The result was an upbeat and comfy set including songs from their 2013 Live EP and their single Light Me Up released in November last year.
Light Me Up was one of the highlights of the set for myself -although the band say that they are now getting sick of the sound of it- it has a distinctly animated 80’s feel. The four piece are incredibly cool and each band member looks like they were born into their role. This foolproof setup, although producing an impeccable alt indie sound, leaves very little room for surprise. I’d like to see Flyte mix things up a little as they continue to soar and grow.
Prides took to the stage to cheers from the large Ironworks crowd. This must’ve come as a relief, as their last visit to Inverness saw them playing to a crowd of roughly fifteen in Mad Hatters (we were there too). 2014 was a big year for Prides with the release of their EP The Seeds You Sow. Their gig here marked the start of UK headline tour and they leapt in with guns ablazin’ and keyboards aplayin’.
The Synth Pop trio were in great form. They are my favourite kind of live act: They put their all into their set but also have a fun and friendly repertoire with one another and the crowd. At one point Stuart Brock and Callum Wiseman begun laughing so much during one song that words starting coming out as indiscernible squeaks. It was very funny, despite missing the first verse of the song.
Their great synth sound coupled with big chant worthy sing along chorus’ make them a fantastic live act. We heard all 3 songs from The Seeds You Sow as well as as their new single Higher Love which was recently premiered by Zane Lowe on BBC Radio 1. It went down a storm on Thursday evening.
One of the highlights of their set was hearing the Mixtape that the band put together at the end of last year, featuring some of the biggest hits from 2014 including tracks from Taylor Swift, Sam Smith and Iggy Azalea but all with that lovely Prides twist. Stuart emphasised that it’s quite hard to play live but they performed the nearly 10 minute mix flawlessly, with no giggles this time.
The set finished up with big-sound anthem Messiah which the band performed at the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in 2014. Finishing off a night at the Ironworks might not be as big as closing the Games but it was great just the same.
More pictures of the evening and you can catch our pre-gig interview with the band.
