Live
Palace
The Mash House, Edinburgh
February 21 2019
Words: Richard Cobb
Some of the best gigs are the ones you go into with very little prior knowledge of who you’re about to see, and I’ve got to be brutally honest, I didn’t do my homework. I knew very little about London's alt-rock four-piece Palace before Thursday night. I wasn’t completely blind, I’d heard a few songs here and there, but I certainly hadn’t appreciated how solid they were as a live band and how adoring their fans are of them.
It was a rough ride for Palace to get here with their van being stolen in Leeds the night before. In usual Scottish charm, the crowd tried and failed to get a “Fuck Leeds” chant off the ground. Like an uncharged drone, it didn’t go anywhere as the band were instantly on the defence of Leeds, quite rightly pointing out that it was those that stole the van they should be aiming their middle fingers at, not the city themselves.
That brief exchange tells you a great deal about this band’s message. They’re decent, genuine guys playing music they’re passionate about and there’s no forced pandering to each new town they play in, which can often be an unnecessary sharp item in a band’s hand luggage.
From opener ‘So Long Forever’, the fast-paced title track of their 2016 debut album, through to set closer, the incomparable blues-drifting ‘Veins’, the band were in emphatic form and showed little signs of fatigue or rage from a late one clouded in the aforementioned van issues the night before.
The capacity crowd were fully charged for the duration of the 50-minute set, so much so that during the slower numbers there were a few angry straight out of Morningside “ssh”ers trying (and failing) to extinguish the flames of delirium in the room. Nestled around old favourites like 'Head Above The Water', 'Kiloran' and the bittersweetness of smooth jam 'Bitter', mid-set airing of a new song debuting this tour, ‘No Other’, drew a decent reaction and will likely be a centrepiece on the as yet unannounced new record.
With the sell-out tour wrapping up at London’s Underground next Tuesday, lost van aside, this eight-day journey has been a hugely successful tale for the band and sets them up nicely for festival season.
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