Browse By

Live: GLASS ANIMALS // Alexandra Palace, London

Glass Animals welcomed us to their tropical paradise at their largest UK headline show to date at a sold-out Alexandra Palace.

Glass Animals - Alexandra Palace London - GIG GOER 2021

The Oxford indie pop/rock quartet’s hugely successful third studio album, Dreamland, has surpassed 1.6 billion streams since its release in August last year. The brainchild of frontman Dave Bayley, who wrote and produced most of the album, takes on a more personal theme as opposed to the band’s previous work, making it an autobiography of sorts. With tours spanning across the UK, North America, and Australia plus a few stops in Europe, Glass Animals have indeed decided to take themselves coast to coast, landing on the very stage in London where they’d seen so many of their favourite artists before them.

Set amongst the neon lights, palm trees, pool ladder, and diving board was an enormous screen with a Windows 95-style graphic complete with a reference to ‘Wavey Davey’ teasing us to the start of the show. Cheers erupted from the crowd as the real countdown began on-screen and the intro music switched. Anyone in the crowd who was not already moving to opener Life Itself would be quickly compelled to next with their latest single and dance anthem I Don’t Wanna Talk (I Just Wanna Dance).

Glass Animals - Alexandra Palace London - GIG GOER 2021

Dreamland was built to induce nostalgia with its artwork, lyrics, and instrumentation, and coupled with the graphics of Pac-Man and home videos from Bayley’s childhood playing in the background tonight, it certainly worked. From the vibrant Tangerine to the R&B-tinged Space Ghost Coast To Coast and the dreamy Gooey, there was something for everyone.

Dave’s childlike excitement at having found the requisite pineapple on stage (and a Twix – promptly tossed into the crowd) was followed by a sensible “I’m not allowed to throw ’em anymore” as he handed the tropical fruit over to a lucky fan before launching into an amped-up rendition of Pork Soda. One has to wonder how much the band has contributed to the pineapple industry with this ritual.

Wavey Davey finally made an appearance in the lines of Tokyo Drifting while a neon pink and turquoise video from the point of view of racing through the streets of the Japanese capital rolled on in the background. “I actually wrote this song about 2 minutes away from here, so this is insanely special,” Bayley divulged mid-Heat Waves – the track that propelled them to the top. The platinum-certified single was voted number 1 on the Triple J Hottest 100 of 2020 – a position that had not been held by an artist from the UK since Mumford and Sons in 2009. With a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist now under their belt, “Was gonna be a superstar” is nothing less than a major understatement for Glass Animals, who will, like the rest of us, never forget this night.

Glass Animals - Alexandra Palace London - GIG GOER 2021 Glass Animals - Alexandra Palace London - GIG GOER 2021 Glass Animals - Alexandra Palace London - GIG GOER 2021 Glass Animals - Alexandra Palace London - GIG GOER 2021 Glass Animals - Alexandra Palace London - GIG GOER 2021 Glass Animals - Alexandra Palace London - GIG GOER 2021 Glass Animals - Alexandra Palace London - GIG GOER 2021 Glass Animals - Alexandra Palace London - GIG GOER 2021 Glass Animals - Alexandra Palace London - GIG GOER 2021 Glass Animals - Alexandra Palace London - GIG GOER 2021 Glass Animals - Alexandra Palace London - GIG GOER 2021 Glass Animals - Alexandra Palace London - GIG GOER 2021

Photos: Abigail Shii