Last Saturday’s sold-out show at the Tolhuistuin in Amsterdam featured Sprints and English Teacher’s closing night of their European tour. Both bands have been receiving stellar reviews, being hailed as ‘promising’ and ‘the must-see live band of the moment’ by several international outlets. These aren’t small claims, and yet they manage to elevate the performance beyond the expectations that were set.
The night started off with English Teacher, a band fronted by Lily Fontaine. In today’s musical landscape, it’s too confining to give bands just one genre to stick to, and tonight’s set proves they’re more than ‘post-punk, indie rock and art-punk’, although the last one comes fairly close to what tonight’s set feels like. The word ethereal comes to mind, seeing the front woman perform with the crowd hanging onto her lips, following her every move. It’s quite a theatrical performance, with the Donnie Darko tattoo on Lily’s arm offering a clue to better understand the world they’ve built in front of us. The music is eerie, weird at times, as if we’re in a different universe for about 45 minutes.
The enthralling music sounds like it could fit a soundtrack to a movie, like the aforementioned Donnie Darko or A Clockwork Orange, which inspired the song ‘You Blister My Paint’. The vibe of those stories perfectly captures what this band is about at this point in time. The setlist takes us on a journey, with bigger songs like ‘Nearly Daffodils’ (one of the 10 best songs of 2023 according to Time magazine) placed in the middle of the story.
Despite having two younger bands on the bill, the crowd – to the surprise of many – is on the older side. My own prejudices getting in the way, I wrongly assumed tonight’s crowd would be a mellow one. It’s clear that I was not the only one in the crowd with expectations, and the bands both decided they’d smash them all to bits.
Sprints is closing out the tour strong, with the mosh pits already starting during the first notes of the first song and not ending until the last note of the evening. Where English Teacher’s set was a story of finding beauty in the strange, Sprints’ set is a story about turning feelings of anxiety and rage into something positive. There are obviously some expectations set for a female-fronted band like Sprints, something they also address in one of the first songs of the night called ‘Adore Adore Adore’.
Karla Chubb, lead vocalist of Sprints, talks to the audience about rage and anger and how it simply means you’re standing up for yourself. Her message is clear; be the bitch in the room, reserve the space for yourself because no one is going to let you have it by being quiet about it. They touch subjects close to them, like the Catholic guilt that comes with being queer, and they do it with the frustration that punk allows them to have. Little conversations in between songs make you feel all the more connected to the music they play, telling you there’s a place for you here.
Saturday Night’s alright for fighting, and after a set filled with back-to-back mosh pits, circle pits and crowd surfers, we can safely say this band has very quickly outgrown the small stage they’re performing on. Literally, as Karla jumps into the crowd more than once. The show comes to a culmination during Little Fix, where English Teacher also joins the stage with Sprints, and Karla stands on top of the crowd, being carried on the hands of her adoring crowd. She truly is that bitch in the room.
Knowing how difficult it is to find your way in a male-dominated music world (even tonight’s crowd is mostly male), Sprints opened up their shows to different female photographers all around Europe. Putting women in positions to grow in their art shows the band also puts their money where their mouth is. Melomaniacs got the opportunity to send photographers Kaat and Tess to a couple of shows on this tour. Their work will be coming to our site soon!
