It only seemed right for the end of Declan McKenna’s ‘What Happened To The Beach?’ album tour to come to an end at the Edinburgh International Festival, where the same album reached number one in Scotland back in February. The crowd went insane for both his newer hits and older classics, with a mix of both performed at the beautiful Edinburgh Playhouse.
It was seated in the theatre, but most of the crowd stayed standing for the whole set, jumping up and down on the spot for fan favourite ‘British Bombs’ and swarming McKenna when he jumped into the stalls for the raging chorus. It was great fun to see a theatre full of people dancing, throwing all etiquette out the window to scream and shout. As always with his gigs, the energy continued throughout aside from a few subtler numbers.
Amongst the chaos, the middle section was hit with technical difficulties, guitar mishaps and an accidentally intense piano moment for the quieter ‘It’s an Act’. But the band kept it going, with energy to support and highlight McKenna, with Isabel Torres on guitar, Linus Fenton on bass, Ben Limmer on drums, and Henry Pearce on keyboards.
Henry Pearce also appeared in support band Soft Launch, a group who had some huge fans in the crowd. They were a great first act, hyping up the space with an eccentric indie-rock sound, like a mix of Blossoms, Vampire Weekend and Declan himself, with ‘Piano Hands’ my favourite.
McKenna was brilliant with his newer songs, from new and teased single ‘Mystery Planet’, to a section that saw ‘Mezzanine’ played brilliantly live, into ‘Isombard’ then into ‘Nothing Works’. It felt special for the Edinburgh crowd to hear Declan’s cover of ‘Slipping Through my Fingers’ debut live performance, adding to the nostalgia of the “end of an era”. With ‘What Happened To The Beach’’s fun, experimental sound going down so well with the crowds of Edinburgh, TRNSMT festival in July and across the country for this tour, it’s really exciting to see what will come next from Declan McKenna.
Review and photographs by Izzy Reeve @izzymayv
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