Manchester-based indie rock band Pale Waves has been around since 2014, having released a total of four albums over the last decade. The band, which currently consists of lead singer and guitarist Heather Baron-Gracie, bassist Charlie Wood, and drummer Ciara Doran, made it to Amsterdam on September 22nd to play their first headline show there since 2018. While they’ve toured with a variety of artists as support act in these past years, the most recent one being Louis Tomlinson, the ‘Kiss Me’ tour finally gave the fans what they’ve been waiting for: a real Pale Waves show.
Doors to Bitterzoet opened at 19:30, and a little over an hour later the three-piece took to the stage to open the show with ‘Kiss Me Again’. “Amsterdam, are you ready for a good night?” Baron-Gracie shouted as they continued straight on with the hit ‘Television Romance’, followed by ‘Perfume’. The three members talked a bit in between the songs, although Wood, at first, was unable to, as his microphone was off. For ‘Red’, Baron-Gracie had no guitar to play, so she could move around the small stage and get even closer to the fans. She even held up the mic to a fan to let them sing some of the words.
As the band had only about an hour to play their songs, deciding on a setlist must have been a struggle with quite some music in their repertoire. As stated before, Pale Waves hasn’t played a headline show since 2018, which means that the only album they toured here was their first one. Wood even asked the crowd how long it’s been, seemingly surprised at the answer. After some chatter, the band continued with ‘Change’. Baron-Gracie remarked afterwards that the crowd was so quiet and respectful, despite it being almost completely full. She also noted that she loved the goth aesthetic of the venue, pointing out the red stained glass windows that adorned the outer wall. A lot of small remarks and jokes were made all throughout the set, making it obvious that Pale Waves are just great friends who are having the best time on stage together, laughing and drinking throughout the night. However, there was also room for more serious conversations, such as when Baron-Gracie shouted “Free Palestine!” after the band’s performance of The Cranberries’ ‘Zombie’.
During tonight’s show, Pale Waves played two unreleased songs in addition to their already-released discography. First of those was ‘Kisses of Tangerine’, which they were about to play right after ‘Zombie’ until they got distracted by the fact that Wood was hidden behind a huge pillar, invisible to at least a part of the crowd. This led to a fan shouting for Wood to take center stage and beat the “introvert bassist stereotype”. As soon as they finally actually started the slower song, the fans lit up the venue with their flashlights in support. Later, the band would play the other new song, ‘They Don’t Want You’. When the flashlights went back down again after ‘Kisses of Tangerine’, Pale Waves continued with ‘Came in Close’, during which Baron-Gracie definitely came close to the adoring fans once more. “Thank god for the gays,” she said afterwards as she was giving a rainbow flag, wrapping it around Wood’s neck as a shawl. Doran was given a lesbian flag as well, and smaller flags were being waved later on during the band’s performance of ‘She’s My Religion’.
The last song before the night’s encore was ‘Jealousy’, the only song from Unwanted that made it onto the setlist. Doran stated they wanted to play the album’s title track tonight as well, but unfortunately, Baron-Gracie did not agree. Instead, after they left and came back on stage, the band finished the night off with ‘Not a Love Song’ and ‘There’s a Honey’. After letting the crowd sing the latter’s lyrics, “I’m not sure that you want me”, Baron-Gracie told the audience “of course I do!”. The fact that the band ended with their first-ever release, and it still being such a beloved song, showcases that many of the people in attendance have been here since the start and are going nowhere. Hopefully, it won’t be another 8 years till Pale Waves graces the Amsterdam stage to headline again: this is a band that truly deserves to play more and bigger shows.
