Pvris And Friends Step Up In London
Published
It’s been a huge year for Pvris. In the wake of their ‘White Noise’ album release – back in November of 2014 – the Massachusetts band have been blowing minds and soaking up acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. With everybody and their dog lining up to declare them the next big thing in rock music, there’s a great deal of excitement surrounding their performance tonight – opening for Bring Me The Horizon.
The queue outside Alexandra Palace seemed to go on forever pre-doors, but the main room is filling up nicely as Pvris take to the stage. It’s immediately striking how comfortable they seem on the grandest of London’s stages. Vocalist/guitarist Lynn Gunn’s vocals are even sharper these days, and if the stage banter seems a little rote, it’s understandable under the circumstances. Rather than amping up – and speeding up – their songs for the live show, they deliver hazy atmospheric touches and retain those all-important dynamics alongside the unstoppable choruses.
After an opening one-two punch of ‘White Noise’ and ‘Fire’, ‘Mirrors’ elicits a huge reaction: showcasing a darker, brooding side to the band’s craft. Alex Babinski and Brian Macdonald divide up guitar/bass duties and synths with aplomb, while Lynn provides the song’s emotional core. They slow things down for ‘Holy’ – a song that, with its discussion of religious intolerance and hypocrisy, feels particularly resonant right now – before bringing out the really big guns. ‘St Patrick’ goes down a storm, despite technical issues throughout, and the defiant ‘My House’ brings a dramatic end to proceedings. On this evidence, it’s entirely plausible that they’ll be headlining venues of this level in the future.
There’s plenty to enjoy over the rest of the evening. Neck Deep round off a banner year in fitting style, bringing all manner of pop-punk bombast to bear. While their performance is rough around the edges, they offer up so much heart, spirit and charm that it doesn’t really matter. Sam Carter from Architects pops up to contribute vocals, and songs from this year’s ‘Life’s Not Out To Get You’ sound enormous.
Headliners Bring Me The Horizon deliver something truly spectacular. Buoyed up by their latest record, ‘That’s The Spirit’, they lay on a full production – confetti cannons, video backdrops, cascades of sparks, the lot – and show just how far they’ve come in recent years. ‘Throne’ and ‘Happy Song’ already feel like anthems, while ‘Sempiternal’ cuts like ‘Can You Feel My Heart’ and ‘Shadow Moses’ are charged with an incredible amount of emotion. It’s almost unprecedented for a band who were once so reviled to capture the imagination like this, and while some may bristle at their current direction, it’s certainly paying off. Now, they’re only one step away from the biggest stages of all.
Pvris image credit: Lindsey Byrnes
