The Beaches take on London’s O2 Kentish Forum
The girl group brought their power pop to the capital.
Photo: The Beaches by Isla Kerr
London’s O2 Kentish Forum was transformed into an empowering women-led space as Canadian rock sensations The Beaches played a sold-out show to their adoring fans alongside rising star Chloe Slater.
Manchester artist Chloe Slater has been hailed a “Firebrand Songwriter” and, as her lyrics bounced around inside the O2 Forum, it was easy to see why. She is unafraid to speak her mind and writes incredibly observational tracks about life in the modern world.
Unreleased track Harriet received cheers from the audience as Chloe introduced it with a little insight, “It’s about being very, very jealous of someone your partner used to sleep with”. The lyrics and topic evidently resonated with many and, as Chloe went on to explain “Six months ago we were playing to rooms full of 100 people” it was almost impossible to imagine her and the band in a room any smaller than this one. They were a total hit.
The crowd's enthusiasm was epitomised by someone in the back who Chloe pointed out was jumping up and down excitedly throughout each track. She then noted another near the front knew “every single lyric”. If that doesn’t give you an idea of the success to come for Chloe then I quite simply don’t know what does.
Canadian four-piece The Beaches have been riding a wave of success following last year’s album Blame My Ex. Their return to London has been much anticipated and they have come a long way since the first time they played in the city. Leandra shared that back then they had, “Slept on the floor and Jordan ended up with Mono and Pneumonia”. That seems a far cry from playing at a packed iconic venue like The Kentish Town Forum and, if the feverish excitement radiating from the band was anything to go by, they were on a high.
They ran around the stage, sometimes playing to the crowd and other times to one another.
Me & Me was devoted to “all the bad girls” and had everybody moving. Even those seated on the balcony couldn't resist and abandoned their comfort to dance along to the fun track.
Jordan paused to ask the crowd “Were any of you going through breakups when you listened to Blame My Ex?”. Cheers answered her as she went on to say that “Hearing your breakup stories really helped me through mine”. It was a lovely heartfelt statement and one that only united the room in further support of the band.
Blame Brett came near the end of the night and received exactly the reaction you’d expect given its online popularity.
The Beaches are rockstars, plain and simple. They owned the stage tonight and had every single person in the room wishing for just five more minutes of music.
All photos by Isla Kerr.