Posted on Thursday 27th October 2016 at 15:20
REVIEW: Warpaint at Albert Hall, Manchester (24/10/16) by Amy Gowen.
Little suggests the next few hours have the potential to catapult you into a weird and enchanted world of dream pop harmonies, psychedelic baselines, head banging, hip swaying, lyrics screaming madness than a stage adorned with glowing, fairy light doused pot plants and glitter drenched amps and drum kits. Christmas come early? Fellow gig goers questioned, a tropical pop-disco paradise? This was nothing less than the work of the uber quirky, ever mystical four-piece psych pop vixens: Warpaint.
The ethereal Albert Hall filled with excited gig-goers as soon as doors opened, producing a promisingly full audience for the support Aldous RH. Who, although appearing to have thrown an entire jumble sale onto their bodies: boasting mismatched animal prints and silky jumpsuits, performed a set with such high precision, energy and skill that I was thoroughly blown away. After an extended final track that had the audience bouncing and boogying for an entire 8 minutes, the support disappeared into the darkness, leaving nothing but heightened excitement to fill the room.
After 10 minutes of eagerly chanting their names, California’s coolest girl band coolly sauntered onto a stage bathed in purple haze. Picking up their instruments and counting themselves into their first track, we surrendered ourselves into their world of psychedelic pop heaven. Opening with a compilation of Bee’s and the Intro from the second album, the girls instantaneously showcased their clear-cut timing and skill, waltzing around the stage, dancing in between one another in front of hundreds of swaying bodies simultaneously humming along to their haunting melodies.
The first half of the show was predominantly dedicated to their second album ‘Warpaint’, offering their eerily dark, slow-paced harmonies that cloaked the hall in a hazy, intense mood. After a pause, Emily coyly asked us ‘do you know what the song is next?’ to which we all screamed ‘New Song!!!’. The bands most recent glittering pop hit introduced a far more spontaneous, dance driven second half that had the crowd screaming along to Love is to Die, Whiteout and Disco Very, whilst head banging to speedy, snappy drum beats and funky baselines. Even after a track heavy hour and a half set, there wasn’t a voice in the crowd who wasn’t begging for more. With such ease, Warpaint had incorporated they’re moodier, downtempo tracks with funkier dance pop hits and hazy instrumentals between the two - creating nothing less than a psychedelic, pop perfect show. After a fifteen-minute encore, the girls took turns to thank the crowd for our energy and passion, gushing that it was far more than they could have ever expected. However, whilst on the train home experiencing a dizzy sense of catharsis combined with a sweaty forehead, lost voice and aching limbs, it was without doubt us that was thanking them for such a mesmerising, energetic performance, full to the brim with the idiosyncratic Warpaint charm.