Hurts - Are just 'Some kind of Heaven' to watch!!!

June 16th 2015

London, Scala, UK

*****

An evening that will go down in the history of the band!

Hurts ***** tonight is a very special night for lucky competition winners and fans, that were lucky enough to get a ticket. Hurts are playing the London, Scala, which is far more intimate than the Troxy or Heaven two of the venues that they played last time they hit London. This is one of only two shows that the band have announced recently, the other being in Berlin in a couple days time. Their is a long wait for them to come on, which built up the anticipation to breaking point, and the stage is full of purple, yellow and orange flowers.

This really helps set the scene for one of the bands best ever performance, and yes the band are in great spirits and look happier than they have ever looked before. They open up proceedings with new song 'Surrender', with the backing of a gospel choir... from this you realise it's going to be a very special evening and one that you would have been upset to miss. The mix of the vocal styles works so well, and you can see why they added this element to the show. 'Some kind of Heaven' sounds so much better live, I think this really is a live song.

Like so many other songs off their upcoming album 'Surrender'. The new material gives the band room to be more flamboyant with their live performances, and I think is the right move for them to stay ahead of the game and to stay up their with the best of new British music. 'Miracle' and 'Somebody to die For' off the 'Exile' album, are massive anthems so when they play these. The room just erupts and you feel you are being greeted by a wall of sound. Everyone is singing the lyrics "Look at all the damage you have done!", and you remember why you love this band so much.

Brand new track 'Rolling Stone' is the best song in their whole set tonight, all the fans already seem to know all the lyrics, even though the band have not properly released it. The song has great lyrics and the band really put their whole self into it, as the song grows as it goes along. 'Evelyn' is just as beautiful as ever, so grabs your attention and keeps you gripped into the bands performance. New songs 'Nothing Bigger' and 'Weight of the World' show a different side of the band, and show how versatile they can be.

With some elements of Dance, Soul, Dub-Step and Electronica all put in the mix. The stripped down acoustic version of 'Blood, Tears and Gold' is just magical with the crowd singing over half the lyrics really loudly to the disbelief of a very happy Theo Hutchcraft. Yes!!! you heard me... Happy!!! he is smiling the whole way through the performance, but Adam still keeps the bands moody persona with help from Paul on the drums who has seemed to have gone into orbit tonight!!! like he is going for the prize of best drummer on the planet. I really think the band is feeding off the audience and from song to song they are getting stronger and better and better.

So when it comes to older songs like 'Wonderful Life, Sunday' and 'Better than Love' you feel that the atmosphere is electrifying, and you would not rather be any other place than hear and now. This is the place from your dreams and you don't want to leave. They end the main performance with more help from the choir for a very special version of 'Illuminated', which you just have to hear. This leaves them in the perfect position to end the whole evening with a one song encore of 'Stay', and like any good band they just leave you wanting more.

This is a good and a bad thing, a good thing that they go off on a high. A bad thing that we don't get anymore of this wonderful music. This was a performance that won't be forgotten, it was almost totally perfect. The only sad thing was that their was not more songs off the brilliant second album 'Exile', and the fact the set was a little short. But I think this was more a showcase performance to show the band is back with some amazing new material. Hurts are back and they are stronger than ever, so don't you dare ignore them.