Live Review: Pastel - The Dome, London 08/03/2025
Pastel are a band on the rise. A shoegaze band many compared to Oasis and they deliver with a confident, laddish swagger that’s far beyond their years on the final night of their tour at the Dome in Tufnell Park. Revelling in confidence and bravado that bands double their size and years struggle to match.
The support – a Welsh band from Cardiff, the Family Battenberg, kicked off the night. Welsh music has had something of a resurgence lately; we’ve had Slate and Adwaith both grace the capital in the last couple of months – and The Family Battenberg follow in their footsteps admirably. Their “spider rock” provides an energy to get the crowd warmed up as they un through their setlist; recognising that when there’s nobody else from Wales in the crowd they’re “Not in Kansas anymore, Toto,” able to do their best to engage a small crowd of people filtering through – perhaps still enjoying the heat of the weekend. It takes a lot to draw a crowd on the same night that popstar Sabrina Carpenter comes to town – and the turnout at the Dome is suitably impressive – for a band that have turned up at fests like Green Man in the past.
Their fusion of 70s/20s rock blends a touch of heaviness with psychedelia and the grin and dry humour they play with is infectious and suits the energy of the night. Single Feed Yer (Nganga) is a highlight – as is Runny Hunny, and Ghouls – with room for plenty of banter engaged with the crowd. They didn’t sound too impressed by the crowd’s energy; or lackthereof – but it was all part of good-natured evening. Eliot’s lead vocals were charming – and joined by Ethan on guitar, Celyn on bass, and Billy on drums – their garage-y charm proved to get the night off to a strong start. Considering we were only at the first act – the sound quality was off the-charts insane and stayed that way for the whole evening.
Second on the list is Manchester band ROLLA, who fit the Oasis and The Verve theme of the evening. Madchester revival bands arrive with a lot of confidence – frontman James Gilmore turns up with sunglasses inside; and he backs up the bravado the riffs have the crowd engaged right the way through to Beautiful Lie, its hook sending hurt into hope and acting as – in the band’s own words, “the most professional and mature song we’ve ever written”, a touch of maturity for the Liam Gallagher-inspired lead doesn’t go amiss. Stooges-esques riffs betray their influence – and it’s clear that while there are a lot of pretenders to the Oasis throne, it’s easy to be won over by the charm of ROLLA and they are not just another one of those pretenders – they’re very much the real deal. The indie anthems win over anyone down there early for the night – and Gilmore challenges the audience to “come out and stop me” midway through We Owe You Nothing – the Mancunian swagger rivals that of Pastels’. You know you’re in for a good night when the support comes highly recommended – and I’d happily turn up to watch them live again.
The Dome is full by the time Pastel come on stage, and it’s with laddish bravado that they get their set going. A tribute to a past era in British rock with an attempt to draw from Standing on the Shoulders of Giants feels all over Your Day, 90s nostalgia at its heart “we’ll make a man out of you son, one of these days,” and the lyrics feel so important and triumphant – challenging the crowd to not “sit around and hide, for this is your day”. The indie anthems switch between shoegaze and stadium-ready rock at ease, and this band is full of good lads with the power to go far. It isn’t long before they deploy the covers – audiences are treated to a rendition of Talking Heads’ Psycho Killer and The Beastie Boys (“anyone a fan of Beastie Boys? Well we’re a band called Pastel”) midset. It takes a lot of confidence to draw from those two bands yet Pastel do that with confidence right the way through beyond their years – betraying their influences. There’s shades of The Stone Roses all over their set – they’re a band that wears their influences on their sleeves and it’s abundantly clear their hearts are in the right place. It takes a lot to remind audiences of all these comparisons – yet Pastel find a distinctive voice to remain different from the crowd.
Favourites like Deeper Than Holy, Isaiah and Escape were deployed at the back-end of the set and the crowd were into it, down to party and eager to sing – the stadium anthems of Isaiah was such a fun track to end on – the crowd in front of me waving their beers in the air and celebrating their success. Hailing form Manchester there – like with ROLLA, Droylsden is full of David Bryne-esque swagger and is joined by cousins Jack and James Yates; Liam O’Shea on bass, Joe Anderson guitar, and Rhys Wheeler on drums. Deeper Than Holy has ad-soundtrack pedigree to it; looking at Primal Scream for inspiration, and the crowd turn up knowing the lyrics – it’s easy to tell that the band are impressed – deployed at the end of the night to leave the audience feeling they’ve just witnessed the next big thing. The arms wide open showcased the poetry of Isaiah that made it an instant favourite, and Pastel looked right at home with their set – “I can feel nothing more, in this life I suffer for, you’re on my time, get back to yours, you need to find the man who cures,” is stadium-ready. This is a band that look destined for the big time.
I do think the association with Oasis and the fanbase overlapping – laddish culture being very much on display – but despite that their charmingly boyish approach feels energetic and eclectic. The tracks are fairly long and dip and soar at all the right times to get the crowd engaged – the 1990s and early 2000s are the years of influence of the day. Heroes Blood introduces us to Jack Yates’ vocals – resonating with emotion when heard live, and it takes a tall order to follow a Beastie Boys track, even a cover of one – yet Heroes Blood very much lives up to its reputation. There’s never a dull moment – earlier on in the 14 song setlist, only that short perhaps by how new Pastel are as a band – Leave a Light On (Velvet Storm) had the crowd singing along from moment one and not once did they let up throughout the night. Swagger and confidence at every turn and with this attitude and their heart in the right place – Pastel will go far.
Words by Miles Milton-Jefferies
Photography by Harry Wassell
