The love and energy from the crowd at Crystal Tides hometown show entirely matched the superb performance from the band, at Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth, UK. Everyone singing along and dancing, many up on shoulders, this was one big party homecoming for the band that have been touring across the UK, including with The Sherlocks. Frontman, Billy Gregory, warmly smiling telling the crowd the venue had sold more tickets for this show than any other since pre-pandemic. Joined by guitarists Harry Knowles and Neil Cripps, bassist George Regan, and drummer Joe Knights, the band played 15 indie-rock songs opening with the “Night Drive” from their latest EP Side Effect.
Highlights of the show included “Courtney Love”, “Backbiting”, “I Don’t Wanna Wait” and “Little Lies”. A special moment when the band played live for the first time their song “Chambers”, written by Billy the day after his friend Charlie Crawford died at just 30 from cancer.
The energy peaked for the band’s encore, with “Headcase” and “Honey” performed brilliantly, the latter involving a crowd surf from Billy. This was a highly entertaining and engaging show from a band that put everything into their live performances.
Main support was from Juno, an alt-indie four-piece, who played a tour of UK cities last year. Their indie-surf guitar sound on latest single “Gold”, perfect for one of the hottest days so far this year.
Opening the show was the talented Tom Millichamp attracting a good early crowd, previously seen as a solo artist, it was great to see Tom with full band and a whole new line up of songs.
Photos and words by Tony Palmer (@shot_by_tony).
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Keep up with Juno by following their socials: Facebook /// Instagram
Keep up with Tom Millichamp by following their socials: Facebook /// Instagram
