Photo Credit: Danny North
Despite the challenging times of live music being on what felt like a permanent pause for the best part of two years, it seems for indie-rock outfit Sea Girls they have had one of the best live runs of their career to date. Coming out of London in 2015, Sea Girls are only on the cusp of releasing their second studio album Homesick on January 14th 2022, but despite the short discography, Sea Girls have crafted a blossoming career built on indie anthems and energetic live shows.
Their debut breakthrough album Open Up Your Head peaked at a respectable number three position across UK charts, for a debut record, a landmark achievement. Now, riding high off the back of a string of summer appearances across festivals galore from Latitude to Reading & Leeds, Sea Girls have just wrapped up their UK tour. It included several sold-out nights across Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, the lyric “If you’re in Manchester will you come to my show” more fitting than ever and a headlining date at London’s O2 Academy Brixton, a hometown show for these burgeoning indie heroes.
Support of the night comes courtesy of Isle Of Wight’s Coach Party’s collection of infectious songs containing lyrics far beyond the band’s years, proved to be the idyllic indie introduction for Sea Girls yet to come.
Whilst Sea Girls might be on the cusp of their second studio album, with the closer of the set coming in the form of new track Sick, taken from said album gave a tantalizing live taster of what’s to come from their brand-new album and live shows moving forward into 2022. The night however, was very much commanded by debut album material Open Up Your Head, given that this tour has been forced to be rescheduled twice in the wake of live music’s absence the past two years.
The night sees Sea Girls complete a set bursting full to the brim of life full and life affirming indie tunes academy sized too, lifting the euphoric energy the audience were feeding off the band throughout. Anthems like opener Call Me Out, mid set numbers Do You Really Wanna Know?, Ready For More and title track Open Up Your Head are complete with deafening singalong-worthy choruses that drowned the band out at times.
Sea Girls show at O2 Academy Brixton felt like the icing on top of the cake for a band rounding off a solid live effort throughout 2021 given the circumstances. Finally getting to bring the chart-topping material of their first full length to a live setting, with some new material and an Adele cover sprinkled in for good measure, Sea Girls are the band to watch going into 2022 with a new album on the near horizon and this headliner is only testament to that bold status.
9/10
Written by: Katie Conway-Flood
