Mostly done with their European run with a lot of festival appearances, The Warning had a sold out headlining show in Amsterdam on Monday evening, August 5th. With their summer ending at a festival the day after this, they made sure to go all out on their last European headlining show.
The evening started out early, but very strong with support act Dead Pony. The female-fronted band from Glasgow started with a cover/remix of The Prodigy’s ‘Voodoo People’, showing off their influences from dance and grunge music from the first note in. To get the crowd hyped before the headliners of tonight take the stage, they played the intro for ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ a couple of times. Vocalist Anna Shields jumped around the stage to show everyone how it’s done. The crowd gladly returned the favor and got just as active as the people on stage. The room got progressively warmer and after around 40 minutes, Dead Pony got the crowd ready to get sweaty for the main event.
There’s a very diverse crowd for tonight’s show. The Warning is a fairly young band, consisting of three sisters in their 20’s, so seeing everyone from young to old, women to men, all enjoying the same night, is a very good sign for how their work speaks to people, and it proves tonight’s show will only get hotter. The themes of The Warning’s music feel very relevant in today’s climate, which is obvious in the fans that found their way to the show tonight. Everyone relates to it in some shape or form, and the women serve as great role models for the younger fans in the crowd.
The women on stage are not holding back, giving everything they have from the first to the last minute. Even though there’s only three of them on stage, they somehow make the stage feel smaller, as all of them have a huge stage presence. The women have an effortlessly cool air around them, and their performance is just as raw, bold and badass.
While all three of the sisters play instruments next to doing lead vocals, the most impressive member has to be Paulina (or “Pau” for short), the drummer of them. In a venue where the temperature rises every minute, she doesn’t even seem to be breaking a sweat. There’s also calls for attention from the audience at one side of the crowd for guitarist Daniela (“Dany”), and at the same time, the other end screams for Alejandra (“Ale”). All three of them have a star power that a lot of older bands lack, and everyone on the floor wants to be as close as possible to see it, as if we’re staring at the sun.
As the band’s from Mexico, it’s not a shock they also have a couple of Spanish songs on the setlist, with ‘Qué Más Quieres’ and ‘Narcisista’. While their English songs are powerful as hell, somehow the unapologetic female rage comes through even more in songs like these. It’s somewhat ironic that these songs came to be because people criticized the band for mostly singing in English instead of in their native tongue, singing about the frustration they feel about it. Independence and holding your own power are also very important themes in their songs, and it’s an overall thread throughout the set tonight. Clearly the crowd responds to the power of the trio, as there are multiple mosh pits to be found on the floor. They certainly kept true to their album title and kept the fans fed tonight.
The Warning’s European tour is over now, but you can catch them in the United States later this year or in Europe around April 2025.
