There's never a dull moment when you're watching Sports Team especially here in Bristol, a tour stop they weren't afraid to call their "happy place" during their set at the O2 Academy on Wednesday night (October 19). Full of microphone stand acrobatics, stagedives and plenty of crowd involvement, it's always been like you're watching a group of your highly-talented friends performing on stage.
However last night certainly felt like fans were watching a far more established band, with a perfect blend of old and new songs from their studio albums Deep Down Happy (2020) and latest release Gulp! (2022). There were plenty of shoutouts to Bristol in general - The Coronation Tap in Clifton was a place lead singer Alex Rice mentioned the band had visited and it just wouldn't be a Sports Team gig in Bristol without a mention of bassist Oli Dewdney's time at Bristol Uni, something which was met with a loud roar from gig goers.
Rice began the show by stepping out on stage in a suave black suit jacket, trousers, white shirt and shades - and armed with a purple bouquet of flowers which he quickly tossed into the crowd. Not long after, the shades and jacket had been removed and Rice was sitting down on stage telling everyone how he'd bought a new pair of shoes that were giving him blisters, before lifting up one blistered foot for all to see.
Despite going barefoot for at least a song, frontman Alex gave an unforgettable performance for the entire set. He brings his personality on stage at every performance here and this one was no different - Alex has moves that The Rolling Stones' own Mick Jagger would be envious of and is, by far, starting trends when it comes to stage presence and performance that Harry Styles could only wish to pull off.
The rest of the band each shone in their own ways too. Rhythm guitarist and vocalist Rob Knaggs treated the crowd to two songs - his voice in itself could make for a successful indie band lead vocal as this, the indie revival, really takes off.
Both Light Industry and Lander, the two songs sung by Knaggs, were highlights of the evening as too were new tracks Unstuck and Cool It Kid. And, with each new song on the setlist, the crowd never faltered in singing along as if they had known every word upon first listen and were already fan favourites.
And fans both old and new were certainly left in the party mood, with firm favourite tracks M5, Here's the Thing, Kutcher and 'Stanton' rounding off the setlist, really bringing the party to Bristol and leaving all in the crowd excited for what the future holds for this quintessentially British indie rock group.
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