As many people are aware, Only The Poets love visiting the Netherlands. They also love Halloween and, especially, performing their own Halloween-themed show called ‘One More Fright’. The band ended this year’s debut album tour in Amsterdam back in April, but couldn’t stay away from the city for more than six months. While two years ago, One More Fright took place in Rotterdam, this year’s edition took place in the Dutch capital. Alongside this Halloween-themed event taking place at Melkweg, Only The Poets also treated their fans to an additional so-called ‘Funeral Show’ beforehand.
Doors to the venue opened at 18:30 to let about half of the crowd in. These fans had gotten their hands on a ticket to the ‘Funeral Show’: a 45-minute-long set where Only The Poets would only be performing old classics that would no longer be making it on setlists in the future. That night, the stage in Melkweg’s Main room was decorated with gravestones, skeletons, and lots of spiderwebs. Fans had shown up wearing all kinds of Halloween costumes, from angels and witches to Pennywise the Dancing Clown and Alexander Hamilton. Only The Poets’ crew had dressed up too, setting up the stage and soundchecking as Gandalf and Jason Voorhees. Of course, Only The Poets themselves couldn’t stay behind. Around 19:15, the Ghostbusters theme song began to play over the speakers as the four band members took to the stage in the accompanying outfits. Lead singer Tommy Longhurst wished the audience a “Happy Halloween” during the opening track, ‘stolen bikes’. This track, as well as the next, ‘dead young’, was featured on one of the gravestones, alongside several other songs that wouldn’t be played and would be metaphorically “put to rest”. Besides older demos, the setlist for this show also featured several songs from the One More Night EP. One of these was ‘It’s Okay (Not To Be Okay)’. Longhurst mentioned it being very special to them and their fans: “Let’s sing it together”. During the song’s last chorus, he asked the crowd to put up their flashlights. Afterwards, Longhurst wanted to give a little speech about how these tracks are actually all important to them, because they got the band to where they are today. However, drummer Marcus Yates was using his soundboard to make random sounds to distract Longhurst. As his laughter finally died down, the band continued with ‘miserable’ and the upbeat ‘Nana’s House’. The setlist also included the first song the band had ever put out a whopping nine years ago, ‘ceasefire’. Once again, Longhurst asked the crowd to light up the room for the last chorus. The band ended the set with ‘Even Hell’ before leaving the stage, telling the audience they’d be back soon.
A few minutes after 20:30, a sinister voice-over spoke the word “welcome…” as macabre music began to play. “This is One More Fright”. The music then died down, only to be replaced by the Star Wars soundtrack. One by one, the four members of Only The Poets walked on stage as characters from the famous franchise. Lead singer Tommy Longhurst was dressed as Luke Skywalker, bassist Andrew Burge was Darth Vader, guitarist Clem Cherry was Han Solo, and drummer Marcus Yates was a Stormtrooper. This, of course, meant that both Burge and Yates were donning huge helmets, hiding their faces. Burge and Longhurst held a short lightsaber fight before opening the set with a cover of Tame Impala and JENNIE’s ‘Dracula’, with Burge singing the iconic line ‘Shut up, Jennie, just get in the car’. The night would feature a bunch more covers as well as several interludes and their own music. For example, ‘Dracula’ was followed by Billie Eilish’ ‘bad guy’, a snippet of the soundtrack from The Phantom of the Opera, and Only The Poets’ own song ‘Looking at You’. Burge took the Darth Vader mask off to perform Kings of Leon’s ‘Sex on Fire’ without it. Yates also took his mask off, but immediately put it back on before the next song. Longhurst joked about having never thought he’d be looking at Darth Vader playing the bass when starting this band, later encouraging the bassist to put the helmet back on. Longhurst even gave the mouth of the helmet a little smooch. Let’s not discuss the implications of Luke Skywalker kissing Darth Vader, though. Anyway,…
The Stranger Things song playing in the background – as these costume shenanigans took place – faded into Djo’s ‘End of Beginning’, followed by the band’s own ‘Emotionally Hungover’.
After a few more covers and ‘Saké’, the band figured it was time to point out some outfits they liked. Burge mentioned someone dressed as Bad Bunny, while Longhurst saw another Luke Skywalker in the crowd: “a Jedi brother!”. Longhurst jokingly asked if this fan wanted to do the rest of the show for him. Another fan was dressed as Jack Sparrow, which led to the discoveries of multiple Jack Sparrows and other pirates in the room. Thus, the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song started playing over the speakers. After this fun little break, the band continued their set with ‘Gone By Now’, the crowd eagerly waving their arms to the rhythm. This was then followed by a cover of The Killers’ ‘Mr. Brightside’, perhaps the cover that was sung along to the loudest of all, and ‘All This Time’, which featured elements of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ at its beginning and end. In between ‘Bad’ and Harry Styles’ ‘As It Was’ – the “leave America” shouted out just as loudly as during Styles’ own shows – Longhurst wished the audience a “Happy Halloween” again as an evil laugh played from the soundboard.
The set was slowly reaching its end, with only three more of their own songs and one more cover left. The first two songs were ‘Jump!’ and ‘One More Night’. During the latter, Longhurst changed the lyrics during the first chorus to “One More Fright Night”. The last cover of the night was Wheatus’ ‘Teenage Dirtbag’. The fans screeched when Burge walked up to Longhurst’s microphone to sing the song’s bridge on his own. This led to the chanting of his nickname, Andy, which they did again when Longhurst announced that Burge had designed tonight’s merch. Burge, however, didn’t want to be the only one in the spotlight, and so he encouraged the audience to also chant Marcus, Clem, and finally, Tommy. “We’ve been Only The Poets, you’ve been Amsterdam,” Longhurst then said as it was time for the final song of the night and the only one that always features a moshpit, ‘emotional’. It surely was another One More Fright to remember. Longhurst ended the night by asking the audience if they wanted One More Fright to take place here again next year, which, of course, the audience absolutely agreed to. So, until next year?
