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REVIEW: The Growlers live at The Albert Hall (22.02.20)

Where do I start? I'd heard many things about The Growlers live, particularly Brooks Nielsen's vocals not being as good live as they should be. With this in mind, I had my expectations lower than they should've been before I had even entered The Albert Hall. Little did I know that they would go on to be my favourite live performance I've ever seen; which is quite an achievement, given that I've seen over fifty artists.

In 2018 I had the pleasure of seeing Arctic Monkeys live and, in my opinion, The Growlers made them seem like nothing. However, I think the difference in venues had a big fixture in the way they both sounded; considering Albert Hall can hold 2,500 people and FlyDSA Arena can hold 13,600 in comparison. If Arctic Monkeys had played Albert Hall - not the Royal one - they would've blown me away too. Whilst they were still incredible, something about being a few rows away from the stage at The Growlers just changed the atmosphere completely for me.

Something that I really liked about this particular show was that The Growlers decided to not have a single support act. It was just them throughout the entire night, providing us with two hours and a half (which is 26 songs, plus somebody's request for Dull Boy) of incredible entertainment.

They started the night off with the cleverly-written ‘Heaven In Hell’ off of their 2018 album ‘Casual Acquaintances,’ which features a plethora of songs that didn’t make it onto their album ‘City Club’ (released in 2016). The first thing I noticed was how they managed to bring everybody together with their carefree spirit and started the night off phenomenally with their choice of introduction. They worked their way effortlessly through a set list, including stand out songs such as; Problems III, Love Test, Someday, Black Memories, One Million Lovers, Empty Bones, Who Loves The Scum? and many others.

Personally, a highlight for me was when they came back and played I’ll Be Around without a single hiccup. I was sure they weren’t going to play it so, when they came back and surprised everyone with it, it was definitely one to remember.

I’ve never been to a gig where they hadn’t opted for support acts until this one and I’m actually incredibly thankful that they chose to do that. This meant we were all treated to far more of The Growlers’ catalogue, enough to make up for never having seen them before then. If you ever get the chance to see them live, make sure you don’t miss out. This was beyond one of the best gigs I have ever been to and will remain one for a very long time, hopefully till I get the opportunity to see them again.


Listen to The Growlers on Spotify.

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