Kids In Glass Houses are having an actual second, aren’t they?

At the start of the 12 months, the Welsh Wonders introduced a comeback to commemorate the 15-year anniversary of their debut album, Smart Casual.

After that, their return breathed new life after they performed Slam Dunk Festival 2023. There, that they had crowds reeling from simply how thrilling, highly effective and nonetheless really incredible they had been.

So then, loads of strain was on their headline tour throughout the UK. The Smart Casual 15-year anniversary reveals had them in a number of the largest venues of their profession to play the report from entrance to again.

Hitting the stage of the epic O2 Forum in Kentish Town on Wednesday, October 18, 2023, Kids In Glass Houses transported me again to my youth.

They had been certainly one of everybody’s favorite bands as a youth, weren’t they? Releasing a number of the poppiest, catchiest, emo tracks round – and home-grown in Great Britain. It hardly ever acquired higher than that.

Well, Kids In Glass Houses have solely gotten higher with age.

Frontman Aled Phillips was like a jackrabbit caught within the headlights as he bounced across the stage, continuous, all through the night.

It was really thrilling to see him explode into every refrain as he excitedly – genuinely excitedly – let his vocals soar at each alternative he had. Between the sounds of his gorgeous voice and the strikes he spoiled his followers with, this was a efficiency that allowed followers to lose their minds.

For me, this elevated pleasure was really downtrodden, just a little, by the remainder of the band.

While Aled embodied the epitome of what a frontman ought to be, the remainder of Kids In Glass Houses remained nonetheless, strained, considerably sombre.

If Kids In Glass Houses are going to make a full comeback within the coming months and years (and by the looks of it, they are), the fringes of the band might want to drastically enhance their showmanship. Otherwise, it will flip into the Aled Phillips present (which, realistically, is completely advantageous. But I’d like to see the complete band actually having fun with themselves all through every efficiency).

With that mentioned, you possibly can not fault another a part of Kids In Glass Houses’ stay efficiency. Every member of the band pulled their weight, musically. Not a fallacious be aware was hit, and the eagerness was felt.

Kids In Glass Houses might fairly simply have been written off as a nostalgia band that had no additional future. And they might have given a lacklustre efficiency which proved they had been nothing greater than a gaggle from the early 2000s – however they defied all odds. They had been an important band. They stay an important band. And they deserve to come back again, larger than ever and actually present what melodic British rock can do in 2023.

Kids In Glass Houses – Smart Casual 15th Anniversary Edition is out now.