Palace brought their Ultrasound tour to Leeds, supporting their new album and delivering an atmospheric show. 8 years on from their debut album So Long, Forever, this new record shows they’re still masters of their signature, dreamy alt-indie sound.
The band – Leo Wyndham, Harry Deacon, Matt Hodges and Rupert Turner – having been favourably compared to the likes of The National and Bon Iver, create deep, introspective work and the opening numbers of the set play right into that heartland. However, while the faithful at the front were hanging on every lyric from lead singer Wyndham, further back in the crowd, there was a bit of chatter as the show took a while to get going. There were highlights in the first half of course – Son, for example, from the new record, was accompanied by a sparkling light show that created a stunning atmosphere across Project House. It took a few more songs though before things began to pick up, notably Give Me The Rain adding a different dimension to the night. If it had been slightly one-dimensional up to this point, this song from the Shoals album turned up the heat.
Live Well from their debut album kept that momentum going, the older material certainly taking hold more strongly than the new. A mass singalong for the first time suggested that the crowd had been keeping their powder dry until now, and as the night progressed, it became clear that the set had been carefully, and successfully crafted to build momentum through to the close. Holy Smoke was a notable feature of the second half, the solo acoustic guitar changing pace and holding the crowd’s attention. Make You Proud was the first of the new songs that really caught fire, momentum building with greater energy as the band moved through the gears with louder, more insistent drum beats that picked up the crowd and carried them along.
Back to the first album again for the end of the main set, the response to Bitter was electric and by now, fans were aloft on the shoulders of their friends, singing their hearts out to a band that had engineered the show perfectly to reach a crescendo at just the right moment.
It’s clear that the craft, not only of the song-writing, but also the performance and placement of songs in the set, is top of the band’s list. It may have taken a little while to get going, but once it did, the momentum was unstoppable.
Palace finish the tour tomorrow (30 November) at the Hammersmith Apollo in London
