Amber Arcades, Hater and THALA kick-off UK Independent Venue Week at the Joiners, Southampton

Independent Venue Week (IVW) is the UK’s annual 7-day celebration of independent music and arts venues, and the people that own, run and work in them. Over 200 venues are taking part in this 10th year of IVW. Kicking off the week at The Joiners venue in Southampton was a co-headline of Amber Arcades and Hater, with support from THALA, starting a 7 night tour with Fire Records.

Amber Arcades, on their first tour of the UK, indeed their first tour since pre-pandemic, are a Dutch dream pop band with new album Barefoot on Diamond Road due out 10th February. The show in Southampton was their first opportunity to perform songs from the new album, with plenty from the back catalogue; opening the show their 2017 alt-rock song “It Changes”. The final song from the set was “Turning Light” from their 2016 album Fading Lines, a superb synth pop guitar and drum end to the show.

Hater are a four-piece band from Sweden, mixing indie-pop with shoegaze, a very cool performance. Songs from their latest release Sincere were played as well as the superb set closer “Radius” from 2016.

Opening the show was Berlin-based THALA. They played seven songs, none of which are released yet, although we were assured they soon would be, and we can’t wait. An exciting performance from this emerging songwriter.