“You can taste it, you have earned it, it is yours!”
SPRINTS roar into the opener, Something’s Gonna Happen, as they step on stage at Bristol Academy. The song builds with this tense, stubborn, rebellion-fuelled momentum – and the crowd doesn’t even try to resist. Within minutes people are spilling over the barrier. Frontwoman Karla Chubb is absolutely owning the room, grinning/slashing/seething her way through every line. “Push, push me hard, watch me I’ll go far!” — pure mosh-pit manna.
If you’ve not caught them yet: SPRINTS, from Dublin, released their second album All That Is Over this year. Their sound pulls threads from PJ Harvey, Bureau De Change, Meryl Streek, Amyl & The Sniffers – with a vocal directness that gives me Gemma Rogers vibes.
DOG RACE, hailing from my own sunny London, have been opening this tour. If SPRINTS’ beats are stubborn, Dog Race’s rhythm section screams RUN – or stay and stare down your demons in beautifully gothic terror. They’re like a siren song in black eyeliner. Katie Healy keeps her head low and her shoulders pulsing, while the band moves around her in stark shapes. It’s endlessly intriguing. Think: Bauhaus × Lipworms × Lady Gaga in American Horror Story: Hotel. Absolutely transfixing.
I’ve also got to mention my new front-row best mates. While waiting for SPRINTS to come on, I ended up chatting to three women all in SPRINTS tees (I immediately bought one — obviously I need to be in this club). We compared setlist hopes (“all of them!”), and then one of them gifted me a bracelet she’d made especially for the show. It’s gorgeous. I love SPRINTS fans. And I love SPRINTS.
(Song I was hoping to hear? Cathedral. They played it!)