Live Review: Movements, Paerish & Muskets - Camden Assembly, London 09/05/2018

Late last year, American band Movements released their debut album ‘Feel Something’. This year, they’re finally hitting the UK with their first headlining tour across Europe. Alongside them, they brought French band Paerish and British band Muskets. We caught the bands at the little venue of Camden Assembly in London, which is your typical dimly lit venue with all the lighting happening on stage, with no barrier between the crowd and the bands.

First up on stage was Brighton based band; Muskets who had a fairly big crowd from the start. Big fans stood at the front right by the stage singing back the words to songs such as ’17 Years’. Being the opening act for a set is never easy, but the band really proved that they’re here to show everyone just what they have to offer and what they have to offer is a variety of catchy tracks with punk emo vibes that fans of Movements are sure to love. The band moved about the stage and made themselves memorable, which will hopefully work in their favour and have them moving on to bigger things in future, especially on the release of latest album ‘Chew’ last year that has some great hits such as ‘Chewing Gum’ and ‘Breathing’.

Up next, Paerish graced the stage with often unheard of French accents. It’s all too common to see native-english speaking bands on stage from England / America / Australia, so it was already refreshing to have a headliner bring a band of a different origin on stage to show us how the French rock out. Bringing more of an indie vibe to the stage, the band still had the crowd lapping up their lyrics and they interacted really well with the audience. They brought a good mix of songs and sounds to the stage that really kept the crowd engaged and interested, and they certainly provided an amazing warm up for Movements.

As Movements came on stage, the room was thick with body heat as the room was almost filled to the brim for this sold out show. You better hope you chose a good spot because moving about was a hard task, especially as the music started and bodies were flying about the room from the stage into the crowd, and people in the audience were going insane pushing each other about to songs such as ‘Colour Blind’ and ‘Deep Red’.

This much-anticipated set was not one to disappoint, as long-term fans went absolutely wild as they’ve been waiting for Movements to cross the seas for a good while now. It also seems the band weren’t disappointed and almost couldn’t believe just how many people not only showed up for them, but also knew the lyrics to all of their songs; old and new. The band played newer songs from their debut album, amongst older songs that long time fans will remember such as ‘Hatchet’ and ‘Protection’ which was one of the first songs the band ever released. To end the set, the band played ‘Daylily’ which is without a doubt the favourite of many fans. This mellowed down romantic piece ended the set nicely, although it almost felt odd to end on such a slow song when most bands end on an energetic piece. It felt as though it was risky to end with it but it worked due to how much their fans love the song, and you knew most people would’ve been waiting for the song throughout the entire set. The crowd all lit up their phones and waved them in the air and the stage was solely lit by the phone lights. It really made for a beautiful, intimate moment and tied up the show nicely.

Words and Photography by Hayley Fearnley