Overpass

Whenever any artist announces a tour of their home country, there’s always one date that they’ll look forward to more than any other: the hometown show. Getting to be in the city where you grew up, the venues you used to go to as a kid, the fans who idolise you and look to you as proof that people like them can do anything. For Birmingham-based indie band Overpass, this hometown show was nothing short of special. Having sold out the O2 Institute two years ago, the band released their long-awaited debut album Elsewhere, Always in June, announcing a huge tour with a headline show at the O2 Academy. With the venue double the size of the Institute, they had to bring double everything to live up to the expectations — and if anything, they surpassed them.

Walking out to an adoring hometown crowd, the band opened with a selection of stellar tracks from their debut album, from opener ‘Union Station’ to the anthemic ‘Sandman’. “It’s good to be home”, said lead vocalist Max Newbold, and the gravity of the moment was never lost on him at any point in the night. While half the set came from Elsewhere, Always, earlier work from their EP’s received a great deal of love from the audience — almost every crowd member knew every word to every song. That love held even when the band chose to not perform a song of their own, instead covering Harry Styles’ ‘American Girls’ mashed up with Underworld’s ‘Born Slippy’. It’s a unique and fresh take on the disco-pop track, with Newbold’s impressive vocal range a highlight, as well as guitarist Elliot Rawlings’ melodic additions that gave the song a new dimension.

This was the latter end of the tour and the third night on the bounce, and there were small signs that the tiredness was starting to show. Newbold’s falsetto was breathy and off-key at several points, though the way he and the band powered through so well the average fan would have struggled to notice. A highlight of the set came when the band stepped off stage, leaving Newbold alone with his guitar for ‘Bonnie & Clyde Pt. 2’. Phone torches go up at every gig nowadays, to the point it almost feels cliché, but this time felt different. For Newbold, this was an “I made it” moment — a born and bred Brummie, living out his wildest dreams by selling out the O2 Academy and having 3,000 people sing every line he’s grafted over back to him.

For a hometown show, the band knew to play up to the occasion by bringing out a special guest in Nieve Ella. The indie-pop musician, who released her own debut album earlier this year, came on to sing her verse on ‘Fall In Love’, drawing the loudest crowd reaction of the night. Closing with two crowd-pleasers in ‘Take It Or Leave It’ and ‘Is This Real?’, the band sealed a triumphant hometown return. Selling out the Academy is no easy feat for any band, and with so much still ahead for the group, the next step in their Birmingham conquest is one of the city’s arenas. Something tells me we won’t have to wait too long to see them play there.