Chartreuse are a name that is familiar to me but although local, I don`t think I’d seen them before. The name symbolises spirituality, renewal, uniqueness, creativity, and imagination which probably sums up this ambient dark-pop quartet who shared a potent but enjoyable half hour this evening. They released their debut album `Morning Ritual` last year and shared a few tracks from said release amongst others. The standout numbers for me were an older track the quite heart-rending `Keep checking up On Me`, entrancing `Switch it On, Switch it Off` and `Never to be real` from the latest release. Hattie, Mike, Rory, and Perry took advantage of the opportunity to shine and shared that the venue tonight, a Grade I listed building was a bucket list tick off.
Palace have manged to pick up a deeply loyal following despite almost hovering under the radar and there`s around a thousand expectant devotees awaiting the band`s arrival this evening.
Sadly, frontman Leo Wyndham`s partner had a late miscarriage and this life-altering tragedy understandably caused immense grief to Wyndham, who used Palace’s new album `Ultrasound` as a vessel to channel his grief. Indeed, the opening tracks this evening were from said release with `Cocoon` leading us in and the intensely introspective `When Everything Was Lost` a song about the power of female energy.
Older tracks such as `So Long Forever` had a wonderful intensity while `Lover (Don`t Let Me Down)` almost shimmered. We have further numbers from the latest release with the cinematic `Bleach` and overwhelmingly heartbreaking `Son`.
Again, some of the highlights for me were `Give Me The Rain` and `Live Well` which both had this ecstatic audience singing along and `Holy Smoke` which Leo sang solo with the aid of an acoustic guitar. The home stretch included `Make You Proud` about love`s insecurities, `Heaven Up There`, the mesmerising `Goodnight, Farewell` before closing out with the ethereal `Bitter`.
The band were called back for a final number `Veins` which became an almost guitar jam before sending this exhilarated crowd out into the chilly winter`s night. This was the penultimate show on an eighteen-date trek of Europe and the UK with the final London show sold out. The band head to North America for an extensive tour from February next year so it`ll be the Summer before we can expect news of further dates and on the strength of tonight`s performance from Leo Wyndham, Rupert Turner, Matt Hodges, and Harry Deacon, I expect it`ll be much bigger venues that await them. Palace do appear to be on the cusp of something quite huge.
