SPRINTS - Live Review

This was my first time seeing SPRINTS, and it landed on that nice point in a tour where everything feels dialled in. For the second to last of the tour, the O2 Academy Oxford was treated to a well polished show.

They came straight out with “Something’s Gonna Happen”, which is the kind of opener that doesn’t really give you a warm-up. It starts tense, then it just keeps tightening until it breaks and the whole place moves at once. “Descartes” followed quickly after, and it set the tone for the night: big choruses, quick turns, no lingering. Karla Chubb mentioned she’d been diagnosed with laryngitis the day before, but if you didn’t catch the words you wouldn’t have guessed. If anything it added a grain to the top end of her voice that suited the songs, a little more scrape when pushed.

What I noticed most was how physical the band’s sound is without needing any fancy tricks. The drums were sharp and dry, the bass sat right in the middle of your chest, and the guitars switched between choppy, nervous parts and those bigger, blown-open sections that make you look up at the lights by accident. “Cathedral” and “Adore Adore Adore” hit early, both familiar in that sing-back way, and the crowd seemed to take that as permission to stop watching and start participating.

Mid-set, they gave the room a moment to breathe without losing the pressure. “Abandon” and “To the Bone” pulled everything inward, the kind of hush where you can hear people shifting their feet and then catching themselves, like they don’t want to break it. “Literary Mind” had that same effect, the song stretching out over the room while everyone stayed weirdly still, and then it snapped back into motion as soon as the next one kicked in.

The more outward part of the show arrived properly with “Up and Comer”. Karla called for a circle pit, but she also gave the rules plainly, pick people up if they fall, don’t force it, just encourage it. It sounds like the obvious stuff until you hear it said clearly, and then you watch it actually happen. The pit opened, closed, opened again, and it felt less like chaos and more like everyone agreeing to look after each other while they lost their heads.

Near the end she did the thing that’s clearly become part of what a SPRINTS night is, leaving the crowd with two messages: protect trans youth, free Palestine. It wasn’t a big speech, it was direct and it matched the mood in the room. “Desire” came in late and heavy, and then “Little Fix” finished it off with that last burst of speed where you realise you’re grinning without meaning to.

Walking out, my ears were thankful I had my earplugs in: they’re a properly loud band, and they’re also unusually careful with a room. You don’t always get both.