There was an American invasion at the O2 Academy in Glasgow last Monday as Massachusetts based rockers PVRIS headlined with support from Texan Maggie Lindemann and fellow Bay Stater Charlotte Sands.
Charlotte Sands
There’s nothing quite like the reaction of someone seeing a Glasgow crowd for the first time. Charlotte Sands kicked off the night and looked like she had the absolute time of her life on that stage. Sands used every inch of the stage in her performance, her guitarist was swinging his guitar round at every opportunity and her drummer stood on his kit to rile up the crowd before almost every song, as a trio they play off each other and turn out a very entertaining performance. Before performing her latest single ‘Alright’, Charlotte requested the crowd shine light from their phones. The result was a genuinely beautiful moment in a set full of energetic rock tracks. She may have been the opener but for me she was the performer of the night.
Maggie Lindemann
Maggie Lindemann is best know for her 2016 single ‘Pretty Girl’ but 2023 Maggie is a very different person. All the tracks she performed were from her 2022 debut album ‘SUCKERPUNCH.’ The pop-punk/ alternative rock album is a far cry from the pop song that made her name. She rocked her way through this show making sure all eyes were on her. She has a type of smouldering stoic persona on stage that demands attention. This did drop several times when she couldn’t help but beam at the reaction from the crowd. Unlike Charlotte Sands, Maggie was only performing on the UK leg of this tour. Perhaps as a warm up for her upcoming tour which, unfortunately contains no Scottish date.
PVRIS
It was just over a month before the UK was plunged into lockdown, PVRIS performed at St. Luke’s in Glasgow. Just over three years later they returned to the city with an extremely polished show despite this being the second night of the tour. They kicked straight into ‘Animal’, at the time their latest single, before moving into 2021’s ‘Monster.’ The bulk of the set was made up from latest album ‘Use Me’ as well as the five tracks released post Use Me including ‘Goddess’ which was released a few days after this show.
‘What’s Wrong’ was the only track performed for sophomore album ‘All We Know of Heaven, All We Need of Hell.’ The biggest crowd pleasing moment came in the encore with the return of ‘My House,’ a firm fan favourite. There were some murmurs of discontent in the crowd with the notable absence of tracks like ‘St. Patrick,’ ‘Heaven’ and ‘Stay Gold.’ But as album four approaches, some songs unfortunately have to miss out. All in all it’s a triumphant return to Glasgow for PVRIS. Their new songs are sounding fantastic, the oldies still hit and Lynn Gunn’s voice is better than ever. I suspect we won’t have to wait too long to see them return to Scotland.
