The Wild Things, Inge Lamboo at O2 Academy Islington, London, 18.09.2025

It was one of those London evenings packed to the brim with excitement, and Islington’s O2 Academy was no different, with audiences queuing to both venues’ spaces. That night, I was heading upstairs to Academy 2 to catch The Wild Things during an evening that would become a testament to the longevity of the legacy of The Who‘s Pete Townshend.

Inge Lamboo

Opening for The Wild Things was Inge Lamboo and her band, who came all the way from the Netherlands for their first ever UK gig – and we were very lucky to have them. Pete Townshend was the mutual connection between Inge and The Wild Things – he lent his guitar skills on the track ‘Call Out Your Name’ from Inge Lamboo’s sophomore album This Is How The Future Sounds (2024).

Quietly making her name in the music scene with viral mashups, earning her recognition from the likes of Townshend, Inge Lamboo delivered a heartfelt set full of vulnerable lyrics. She opened with ‘Like A Phoenix’ – also the opener to the recent album – which she wrote as the anthem for Amsterdam Pride after she was chosen as its Ambassador. It was the perfect opener to introduce us to her warm, bluesy guitar tones with a sprinkle of country on the edges. The aforementioned ‘Call Out Your Name’ got a great reception, but the indisputable crowd pleaser became Inge’s trademark mashup of Arctic Monkeys’ ‘Do I Wanna Know’ with Fleetwood Mac‘s ‘The Chain’, performed by Inge solo on her acoustic guitar – everyone went a bit wild and the Academy 2 turned into a bit of a communal karaoke.

With great energy between Inge and the band, they were the perfect warm-up for The Wild Things, and that set was a smashing UK live debut. I hope we won’t have to wait long for them to return.

The Wild Things

The headliners were another band championed by Pete Townshend – and they would have opened for The Who during their Vegas residency, but Covid sadly foiled those plans. Instead, Townshend acted as a producer on the rock quartet’s recent concept album Afterglow, which tells a story of a fictional town called Valentine grappling with a paranormal event.

Already with a reputation for great stage presence, hook-laden riffs, tight harmonies and infectious energy, The Wild Things took no time to win the audience over, with the crowd singing every lyric back to them from the word ‘go’. The band hasn’t played a London show in a while and they kept remarking how good it was to be back – and the crowd’s energy told me the the feelings across the room were very much mutual – there were constant raptures of cheers between each song and even the new single ‘I Can’t Wait’ turned into an instant sing-a-long with fans singing every word.

Their set list followed Afterglow interwoven with their debut LP You’re Really Something, leading with Afterglow‘s opener ‘Only Attraction’, originally featuring Townshend himself. Another track that featured Townshend on the album – ‘Two Heartbeats’, a gorgeous ballad which Sydney Rae performed without her usual guitar, and which allowed her vocals really shine – landed particularly well with the audience, but trying to pick the highlights in the stacked setlist was like looking for a needle in a haystack – I’m not exaggerating when I say the audience was eating the set up with ferocious energy.

Considering that Sydney Rae White (vocals and guitar) – and Rob Kendrick (guitar) met when they were both in a production of the musical Quadrophenia, it is no surprise that their stage presence and chemistry is simply electric. They have incredible banter – both as a band as well as with the audience – and it was the kind of a gig that you leave with a huge smile on your face and many earworms to accompany you on the journey home.