Echosmith: The See You Tonight Tour 22/11/2023

Where: King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut – Glasgow, Scotland (UK)

Venue rating: 10/10

Who I went with: Myself

Where I stayed: Hampton Court Guesthouse (For the last time, as it is closing in December!)

How I travelled there: Train from Inverness

Beverage of choice: White wine beforehand

SETLIST:

Porcelain
Gelato
Over My Head
Sour
Come Together/Let’s Love
Hindsight
Golden Child
Bright
Tell Her You Love Her
Yellow (Coldplay cover)
Hang Around
Goodbye
Primadonna
Sucks 2 Be Us
Talking Dreams (Fortune cookie pick)
Perfect Light
Cool Kids (Our Version) (Encore)

I made the trip down to Glasgow to see Echosmith because they know how to put on a really fun show and I was keen to hear more songs from their new self-titled album, ‘Echosmith’. The notification from Songkick took me by surprise, since they hadn’t been to Scotland in years. Sydney Sierota (lead singer) told us with great delight that her husband is now a pilot, so they are planning to travel the world much more often. She said it is “unacceptable” how long it has been since they were over here and they hope to come back again soon. I had never been to King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut (or “King Tut’s”, as it is affectionately called), although it is one of the most iconic music venues in the UK. I can see why it is so beloved, as it is the smallest venue I have been in and intimate shows are far superior, in my opinion. It felt like only one hundred people were there, though it was probably between two and three hundred in reality. The capacity is three hundred and the show hadn’t quite sold out, according to the posters on the walls. The only major Glasgow venue I haven’t been to yet is The O2 Academy but I am seeing Simple Plan there in February and will soon be able to tick it off my list. My favourite is still The Barrowlands (or “Barras”) but it is a completely different beast. I liked how chaotic it was but King Tut’s must have moments of craziness too, depending on the night and who’s performing. I think Echosmith are a great first band for me to see here, as I have been a fan of theirs for years. The ticket was only £13.50, which was a total bargain. They also had a VIP option but I didn’t go for it as I had already met the band after their show in San Francisco last year. It was nice of them to re-visit King Tut’s, as that’s where they performed when they were last here in 2015.

I arrived before the doors were due to open at 7:30pm and began to queue before getting shooed to the back of the line because I wasn’t a VIP guest. The staff were mostly friendly but a little disorganised, which was a shame because I had such high expectations after all the positive reviews I read online. I completely forgot to take a picture of the venue from the outside but I nearly walked past it because it is so small and easy to miss. The building looks almost sunken, since it is situated on a hill and you have to go down some steps to reach the entrance. There is a bar downstairs and a good number of seats, although they were all taken by the time I got there. Upstairs has the stage area to the right and a bar, cloakroom corner and merch table section to the left. Echosmith arranged for QR codes to be dotted around the place for fans to scan and have a chance of winning a trophy and signed setlist but I didn’t see them as I headed straight towards the barrier. They opened the doors ten minutes late, so McKenna Michels came on as soon as I found my spot. She was very entertaining and wore her heart on her sleeve the whole time, sharing personal stories of abuse during her childhood and a boyfriend who left her without warning one morning. One of her most emotional songs was ‘Survivor’, written about a girl named Michelle who has cerebral palsy but is incredibly strong-willed. She sang it with tears in her eyes and confessed she was extra emotional since it was the last night of the tour and she didn’t want the experience to end. Her set was more energetic in the second half, where she whipped off her floaty skirt and strutted around the stage. ‘Born To Die’ stuck in my mind since it was heavily inspired by ‘Chicago’, one of my favourite musicals. I was already thinking her voice would be well suited to musical theatre, so it was a pleasant surprise and the references were not lost on me.

Larkins came on after a short interval and the crowd greeted them with enthusiasm. I didn’t know any of their songs beforehand, even though they are from the UK and I have been trying to listen to as many bands as possible. I used to listen to the same four or five bands most days and have been expanding my knowledge since then but it is difficult to know every single band who is performing nowadays. They formed in 2014 and are based just outside Manchester. There are a whole lot of stats I don’t understand on Wikipedia but it looks like they gained a lot of followers through social media in their early days and had their big breakthrough with their ‘TV Dream’ EP. They seemed genuinely happy to be performing and I think they could become even bigger in the future as their talent is obvious. Their songs reminded me of Bastille’s newer material, which is a positive thing. I liked them a lot and enjoyed hearing them distort their voices and use various other effects to create the desired atmosphere. ‘Are We Having Fun Yet?’ was definitely my favourite from the night and forced me to realise I should be having more fun, even though I was half-asleep and not feeling the best. I also thought ‘TV Dreams’ and ‘Pretty Boy Club’ were extremely catchy and I have listened to these songs several times since hearing them live. Looking up the band members confused me as I wasn’t sure the information was reliable but the core members are Josh Noble (lead singer), Dom Want (guitarist) and Henry Beach (bassist). There was a female drummer on this occasion but I couldn’t find her name online, sadly. I was almost too close to the stage to get good photos of the band but they were very interactive and JN threw a guitar pick into the crowd (which rolled under the stage, unfortunately). They have performed at King Tut’s at least twice before, according to my Google search, so regulars are bound to know them. They were grateful to a group of women in the back who were showing support and screaming the lyrics.

I was excited to see Echosmith again as not all of the songs from the new album were released when I saw them last November and I had only heard ‘Hang Around’ for the very first time during that performance. They opened with ‘Porcelain’, which was the perfect choice because it is also the first song on the new album. I like its slightly ominous undertone and how the lyrics are pretty dark when you take them in. They work very well together as a band and are obviously a close-knit trio of siblings. Graham didn’t do any of the talking but came to the front of the stage a handful of times, to play drums or greet the fans who joined them onstage. They danced around the stage a lot and SS juggled instruments such as the guitar, keyboard and tambourine. She asked if this was anyone’s first time seeing them and welcomed the newcomers to “the family”. She said this is a bittersweet night for them, being the last show of the tour. She repeated the word “bittersweet” to segue into the song ‘Sour’, which is also off the new album. Before ‘Hindsight’, she asked if any of us are over-thinkers and laughed when some people cheered loudly in agreement. She said she never considered it an exciting way to be but explained it leads to a lot of song-writing. She told us how talking to Noah about how cool it would be to have 20/20 vision for the moment you are in so you can fully appreciate it helped her come up with the idea for the song. They appeared to use a loop pedal for ‘Golden Child’, which made it sound more like the recorded version with the intro repeating in the background. I would have liked Noah to have sung more but we got to hear a bit of his voice here. ‘Bright’ got a huge reaction when SS started to introduce it, proving there were a lot of older fans in the crowd after all. She said the love songs on the first album were all hypothetical because she was so young when she wrote them but is glad to have someone to relate the songs to now.

SS got us to think of someone and then selected random members of the crowd to publicly profess their love, which may be exciting for some people but was quite cringe-worthy for me because I am not a lovey-dovey person. I spent the rest of the night wishing I had come up with a hilarious answer instead of saying my boyfriend (no offense, Paul) but I didn’t want even more attention to be on me. I was scared I would end up onstage as they normally choose someone who is there without their loved one (me) but SS ended up picking two sisters who were so happy they were sobbing. It is a lovely idea but I have never applauded harder for strangers as I did for those two girls, as I really didn’t want it to be me. They got us to do “hand hearts” when the phone camera was turned on us, as they made a video to send to their family. After ‘Tell Her You Love Her’, which followed that stressful segment, they did a beautiful cover of Coldplay’s ‘Yellow’. It would have been an incredible surprise if I hadn’t already spoiled the setlist for myself days before. I need to stop doing that. SS’s voice is absolutely gorgeous and their rendition made me remember that Coldplay performed at King Tut’s during their early days. They revealed the QR code winner and invited him onstage to pick the fortune cookie song, also like they did in San Francisco. I would have been more comfortable with that than talking about love. It was hysterical when Noah and Graham started eating the fortune cookies while SS was trying to explain everything to us, since they wouldn’t need them anymore after the last show. The band then tried Tunnock’s Teacakes for the first time, which were gifted to them by a fan or staff member – it wasn’t clear. SS apologised and said she doesn’t normally eat onstage but told a funny story of how she waves her food in the air when she finds it truly delicious. Noah said she also does that with her fork when she’s eating, which is a hazard. They asked Graham to do a drum roll before the fortune cookie song was revealed and the crowd joined in somehow – I guess by patting the walls or stomping on the floor. ‘Talking Dreams’ ended up being chosen over ‘Nothing’s Wrong’ and it was great to hear the title track of their first album.

They did ‘Cool Kids’ for the encore, of course. SS said it was written ten years ago but they still relate to it just as much now. It was the newer version of the song, which is a lot slower and tackles the original from a new and more mature perspective. At the end of the show they said they would come to the merch table to meet us and take pictures, sign things etc. I wasn’t prepared, as I thought they would just do that for the VIP members earlier in the day. I waited a while but got more nervous as the minutes ticked by and decided to leave as I had barely slept the night before and I had a very early start in the morning, to get back up to Inverness for work. It would have been nice to chat with the band but I knew they would have a lot of people to wade through and it would be very late by the time I got out. I bought a signed poster from the merch table for a very reasonable £10. It barely survived the trip home even though the girl gave me an elastic band to put around it but I still love it anyway. Some of the merch was discounted because they didn’t want to have to take it all back home with them again. The pink hoodie was £30 and a poster was included for free and I regret not going for that deal but I always need to watch my money. Larkins were also there, chatting with fans and selling merch. I didn’t see McKenna but I didn’t stick around too long. I always feel awkward, as I wouldn’t want to go have a look at their table and then not buy anything or get involved in conversation. I hope Echosmith don’t wait too long to come back to the UK (especially now they have a bigger excuse to travel) and I would snap up a ticket to see them again in a heartbeat.

GALLERY