The headline show was at max capacity.

Ever since their surprise burst onto the scene back in 2022 with the EP Get Mean, Divorce have firmly established themselves as ones to watch. With an eclectic mixture of country-meets-alternative-meets-grunge, they deliver something fresh and exciting, standing out in a crowd of overpopulated ‘indie’ music. Not only can they give you one hell of a ballad, they can switch it up and go full country.

Never have I been to a show where a band will dedicate an entire section to country, but here we were: Divorce doing what Divorce do best. They knew what that crowd wanted and they were there to give us the setlist of our dreams.

Starting off strong with the 2024 standalone track, Gears, the fabulous four — consisting of Adam Peter Smith, Felix Mackenzie-Barrow, Kasper Sandstrom and Tiger Cohen-Towell (definitely winning the award for band with the most double-barrelled names) — impress with a confident, strong start to the night, promising more of whats to come.

Tiger and Felix took it in turns to stare in awe and gratefully acknowledge the crowd gathered for them between songs, as a packed full Islington Assembly Hall room stared back at them in similar awe. That night we were in the presence of the future of all that’s good in the music industry.

As well as playing new single All My Freaks, the quartet masterfully performed their way through unreleased tracks, presumably from upcoming debut album Drive to Goldenhammer (out March 7th): Jet Show, Antarctica, Lord and Hangman, still managing to captivate the audience, despite no one knowing a single line.

The audience hung onto every line and every note as the duo shared vocal duties, complementing one another with ease. The band managed to get everyone’s collective noise to a whisper as they played the sorrowful track Heaven Is A Long Way, sending the crowd into a gentle sway that truly hallmarked the night as one to remember.

Ending with two of their best songs, Eat My Words and Checking Out, I couldn’t help but selfishly notice the lack of my favourite, Services, and one of their very first tracks. Surely, I thought, they have to play it. When they said their goodbyes, waved and left the stage, I knew they’d come back. They had to. My friend had witnessed me wait for every song to start, teased by the fact it wasn’t Services, as I confidently said, “this time, they’re playing it.” I looked at her and said, “They’ll do an encore.”

As they bound back on stage and broke into That Hill, part of me thought maybe they won’t play it. Tiger had mentioned earlier that they had to cull a couple of songs from the setlist — Pretty, for instance.

There wasn’t a greater feeling than finally, after two years of it being on heavy rotation in my headphones, hearing Services for the first time — and what a perfect song to end on, to see out the end of their tour.

All photos are by Rosie Sco.