The evening started with the Magicians (fans) packing out the venue, adorned with light up rabbit ears provided by Voilà‘s team. Kickstarting the evening was Dutch Melrose accompanied by PRETTY HAVØC on bass and Henry Hinton on drums. They had amazing energy, joking around, and interacting with the crowd while performing a series of sultry songs including ‘LOVE AGAIN’ which was released the night before. The standout songs for me were ‘FORGET YOU’ and ‘MIRROR MIRROR’ which saw PRETTY HAVØC putting the bass down to jump on vocals for their collaboration before ending the set on a high with ‘RUNRUNRUN’ which had the whole crowd bopping along.
After a quick change over, Chri$tian Gate$ made his way to the stage with a big cheer from the crowd. Starting the set off strong with ‘Dangerous State of Mind’, he brought the energy from the get-go which was reciprocated by the crowd throughout the whole set of angsty heartbroken anthems. The crowd particularly enjoyed ‘Food Poisoning’ and ‘BABYDOLL’, followed by Dutch Melrose coming back out to join Chri$tian for their collaborative track ‘TOXIC’ which went off. Chri$tian got the crowd to dance along for Royal & the Serpent’s verses of their collaborative version of ‘Overwhelmed’ before climbing back on the barricade to perform ‘Never With You Again’ up close with the fans. He ended the set fully in the crowd with hit song ‘NUMB’.
Voilà had paid attention to every tiny detail with the production of this show, ensuring a fully interactive experience for their devoted fans. This included a karaoke singalong with fan favourite songs during the changeover with multiple levels to get everyone warmed up and ready for the show as well as a crazy light show and CO2 canons throughout the show, they even had candelabra mic stands!
The set was split up into multiple parts with intermissions, dedicating a section of the show to each of their albums. As soon as they set foot on stage, the crowd went crazy, and the energy was insane. This was their biggest headline show to date and it fully sold out, I’ve never seen the venue so packed! they started with ‘Vogue’, the first single off ‘The Last Laugh (Part 1)’ which came out on June 20th before diving into their 2022 album ‘Happy Never After’ with hit songs ‘Drinking with Cupid’, ‘Drop Dead Gorgeous’ and ‘Therapy’. it was then ‘The Cure for Breathing”s turn in the spotlight with ‘Don’t Say I Didn’t Warn You’ and ‘Table for One’ before taking us back in time to their first album ‘Long Story Short’ with the title track and ‘Cruel’ which had the crowd singing along the loudest and really showcased Gus Ross‘ strong vocals.
One lucky ‘magician’ was chosen to pick a mystery song out of a hat, London got ‘Straitjacket’, before diving back into ‘Glass Half Empty (Part 1)’ which took the energy up another notch, taking a brief intermission with their collaboration, ‘7 Minutes in Hell’, with Chrissy Costanza. They then Jumped back into their most recent album and invited Chri$tian Gate$ out to perform ‘after(h)ours’ together, which was my highlight of the show, it went crazy live. The show ended with a trip back to ‘Glass Half Empty’ but Part 2 this time, performing ‘Train of Thoughts’ and ‘Something Blue’, finishing up with an encore of fan favourite track ‘Figure You Out’.
No pun intended, but they quite literally do pour magic into these songs, I don’t understand how they haven’t blown up yet. The way they pour their hearts and souls into this project and capture all the emotions in their songs through Gus’ heartfelt vocals and Luke Eisner‘s incredible song writing is unmatched and somehow sounded even better live! The energy in the room throughout the whole show was immense and it is so nice to finally see them getting their flowers, having sold out a full European tour instantly and playing Reading & Leeds. I can’t wait for their return at even bigger venues next time!