Most bands wouldn’t have the confidence to start their largest UK show to date with an
unreleased song, but most bands aren’t Wednesday. The alt-country powerhouses from North
Carolina harness an intriguing sound, with lead singer Karly Hartzman’s slice-of-life lyrics sung
with a country twang, effortlessly blending with lead guitarist Jake Lenderman’s dirty shoegaze
riffs. The sonic blend proves an enticing combination, not least for the sold-out crowd at
London’s Scala, but also for critics with album Rat Saw God attracting rave reviews since its

During two and a half hours, while speaking two and a half times faster than most, Henry Rollins only told three stories (with a bit of politics at the start and motivation at end.) But my god, what stories.

The Black Angels create a fully immersive, deeply hypnotic experience in Shepherd’s Bush Empire with their fuzzed-out Texas take on psych-rock.

Hell Is For Heroes treat an incredibly enthusiastic Eventim Apollo audience to a blistering set featuring ever-potent classics, two brilliant new songs, and a lead singer clearly still hooked on crowd surfing.

Yungblud wraps his first UK arena tour with a thrilling Wembley show that combines newfound spectacle with a familiar intimacy.

Inclusion is important to Yungblud. His songs, which touch on everything from gender identity and prescription pharmaceuticals to mental health and family dysfunction, preach self-acceptance and resisting society’s pressures to conform. His fanbase, the Black Hearts Club, is built on what’s described as a shared sense of unconditional love and communal support.

PVRIS bring new songs and old to a packed Eventim Apollo, showing off their talents as dynamic live performers as well as their musical evolution.

Too often live shows highlight a band’s shortcomings. Especially if that band’s carefully crafted albums favour a big, slick production style over capturing the raw energy of real people playing together. Without the studio trickery to hide behind, on stage their limitations as performers, musicians, or songwriters become glaringly obvious.

The 1975 support their most focused album yet with their most ambitious stage show to date. Even a surprise appearance by Taylor Swift can’t eclipse the sensory-overload spectacle they’ve created.

To the strains of Mahler’s Adagietto, Matty Healy has just felt himself up on a couch, taken at least two bites of a raw slab of meat, done shirtless push-ups in front of a wall of ’60s TV sets, and climbed right into one of those flickering screens.

Where does one go from there?

Fields Of The Nephilim embark on another dark voyage as they perform their landmark 1988 album The Nephilim in full.

The Cure wrap their Lost World Tour of Europe with three Wembley Arena shows that are all about astonishing new songs, the mood swings of an epic back catalogue, and a celebration of the big pop hits. Nils van der Linden was there, with photos by Naomi Dryden-Smith from the Glasgow show.