On a cold Tuesday night in mid February, the sold out J1 at the Cambridge Junction would soon heat up as people danced and sang along to Liverpudlian quartet Circa Waves, eight years after they last graced the stage there.
But before that Corella from Manchester would open the evening with Kings of Leon like vocals, perched at the front of the stage, frontman Joel heading into the welcoming crowd towards the end of final track Barcelona Girl.
They were followed up by Worcestershire’s Peace, which sees the core of Harry and Sam Koisser, on the road with new bandmates since 2023. Performing their soundscape of Indie post punk, with little hints of electronica and callbacks to Sonic Youth noise pop.
Finally Circa Waves took to the stage, backed by an array of bright lights. They would have a pool of six studio albums to pick from for their setlist, bucking a recent trend of using the opening track from your latest release they would dip back to 2023 to open with Do You Wanna Talk. Waiting until the fourth song to play something off of Death & Love pt 1, released a couple of weeks ago.
Frontman Kieran Shudall would tell the crowd how fans online always ask things like “Why don’t you play this song live anymore?” and similar gripes, then highlight one fan who always asks for Crying Shame from 2017’s Different Creatures. Well tonight that fan, Harry, is here in the audience and time to put his money where his mouth is and play guitar on the track, as he had said online he would. Harry did not disappoint, holding his own playing with the band on stage.
This kind of crowd interaction would sum up the mood of the night with a band and crowd that feel more like a single group of friends, later another fan, Luka, would play the part for Jacqueline, before Shudall would say that would be the last fan to play, possibly hoping he hasn’t started something.
