Music Critic Chris Watts reviews The Amazons’ Adapted for Stage tour, praising its Halloween twist whilst finding potential opportunities for improvement
This Halloween I headed to the O2 Institute to see The Amazons on their Adapted for Stage tour. I have seen them previously as a support act, but never as a headliner, as I was not interested in their last album. However, 21st Century Fiction, their most recent release, is in my opinion their most complete work yet, so I was excited to see it, well, adapted for the stage.
To begin the night though, as I had ventured in alone, I felt I should make a friend. I don’t always do this, but it felt the right thing to do. Whilst comparing concerts with a guy beside me, we realised we had in fact met before. In 2022 we met at the O2 Academy for a Daytime TV concert. It is a small world, the Birmingham live music scene.
…they played into their costumes, clearly enjoying the chance to dress up
Supporting The Amazons were Balancing Act, and it being Halloween, they, along with around half the crowd, had dressed up. Wearing matching My Chemical Romance outfits, they played the opening of ‘The Black Parade’, before blasting into their extremely high energy rock. Unfortunately, whilst their music was good and their performance was fun, it was not quite enough to engage the slowly growing crowd. This was a shame really, because I felt they deserved a better reception than they got. That said, one or two of their songs did lack the dynamic range to have made it more exciting; not every song needs to be turned up to eleven.
With a quick turn-around, The Amazons came on. After Aragon’s speech from the third Lord of the Rings film, the band walked out as the fellowship. The band themselves were barefooted hobbits, whilst their backing band were decked out as Gandalf, Legolas and Boromir. The techies coming on stage to swap out guitars dressed as Ringwraiths. And they played into their costumes, clearly enjoying the chance to dress up. Their drummer left the stage half way returning as Gandalf the White, Legolas spent much of her time shooting her band mates with a toy bow and arrow, and the hobbits found the one ring at the end of the show.
I often wonder at the benefit of these moments, because surely you are just preaching to the converted when you say this at your own gig
In line with the rest of this tour, they opened with ‘Joe Bought a Gun’, instantly capturing the crowd’s attention. They did not let it go for the next hour and a forty minutes, mixing their old hits into the roaring sound of their newest album. A few times Matt Thomson paused the show to try and make a comment about the state of the world, and his general feeling that his generation are much too passive. I often wonder at the benefit of these moments, because surely you are just preaching to the converted when you say this at your own gig, and especially here where he did not really say anything of substance, it felt a bit hollow.
Nevertheless it did not detract from the show. White curtains were draped at the back of the stage, and low angle front lights cast grand shadows on them. It gave the show an immense sense of scale, and the audience reacted with one of the most aggressive mosh pits I have seen at an indoor venue. But the crowd was a good crowd, so when I got bowled over by a flying ‘Fuzzy Tree’, those around me stopped me getting trampled and pulled me back to my feet.
…seeing them again seems like a no brainer
The best moments of the show, undeniably, were when backing vocalist Ella McRobb, classically trained singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, stepped forward to join Thomson. Songs like ‘Living a Lie’, ‘Night after Night’ and ‘My Blood’ would be half as good without her incredible voice. When she began ‘Living a Lie’ the audience went silent, captivated as she walked to the front of the stage.
After a quick encore, the band returned for a collection of songs off their first album. It was a nice touch, calling back to their roots and presented as a thank you to their fans for following them for so long. Unfortunately I think it was the wrong decision. The spell had been broken, and whilst they managed to bring the energy back by the end of ‘Black Magic’, the entire section felt tacked on. Despite this, the show was excellent, and if they put that much effort into all their headline gigs, and they can maintain this level of quality, seeing them again seems like a no brainer.
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