Supporting Beabadoobee is the New-York based grunge band Pretty Sick with vocalist/guitarist Sabrina Fuentes, bassist Orazio Argentero and Austin Williamson on drums. The band gives an explosive performance which is very reminiscent of ‘90s grunge bands with its raw and heavy sound. It’s quite refreshing to hear this sort of music coming back again from new young artists and although their sound is a lot grungier than the headliner’s, they have a certain flare that draws the crowd in which definitely gained them some new fans that night.
She knows how to both hype a crowd up and keep them grounded
Then at around 8.40 pm, the woman herself and her bandmates (Eliana on bass, Jacob on guitar and Luca on drums) burst onto the stage clad in that casual charity shop aesthetic which is so representative of our generation. They open with the poppy-rocky '10:36' from the latest album. This has the crowd chanting the lyrics “I don’t want to/ yeah yeah!” and bopping up and down to this upbeat tune.
Throughout her 1h 30 minutes on stage, Bea and her band go through a range of songs which highlight her heavier rockier side with 'Charlie Brown' and 'Back to Mars' and then with the softer acoustic tracks such as 'Ripples' and, arguably her most famous song, 'Coffee' during the encore. A moment that will stay with me is that when starting 'Ripples', she gently sings to the crowd to “Shut the f**k up”, and when asked so sweetly, we must oblige.
The show ends with 'Cologne' – a personal favourite – and I was a little disappointed because the bass was turned up a bit too high, so it was almost impossible to hear Jacob and Bea’s licks and riffs on their guitars which I think are the musical highlights of the song. But overall, Beabadoobee is a joy to watch perform. She knows how to both hype a crowd up and keep them grounded - I can’t wait to see her again!