Chvrches win over the John Peel Stage at Glastonbury

Two years ago, Chvrches were simply the sparkle in the eye of a few blog hungry bedroom dwellers. Not anymore. Not even a little bit.

After a whirlwind of Atlantic hopping tours, and an album that exceeded the hype, there’s a feeling of expectation around tonight’s set. It’s not just the lightning storm that brought Glastonbury to a standstill earlier in the day. Tonight the Scottish three piece are returning heroes, high on the bill with higher expectations thrust upon them. And they’re ready for it.

Lights flash, smoke bellows, opener ‘We Sink’ sounds deeper than an ocean trench. On their travels, Chvrches found those last ounces of missing stage presence. All grown up, they’re three pillars stood against the oncoming storm, beating it back with a wave of synths and beats. ‘Lies’ soars high, ‘Lungs’ goes even higher, ‘Gun’ sounds like the perfect representation of modern pop music - if there’s a misstep to be found, nobody would dare to notice.

“Shit got pretty biblical for a while,” Lauren observes, before launching into ‘Science/Visions’. That it may have, but not half as much as it will here. With ‘The Bones of What You Believe’, Chvrches set list became far less of a race to that closer. Instead, ‘Recover’ kick starts the slow build that can’t even be stunted by a (really rather brilliant) mid set rendition of ‘Jolene’ in honour of Dolly Parton. ‘Tether’, the heart of that debut record, remains just as stunning live, but it’s that pay off that will always win.

In ‘The Mother We Share’ Chvrches have more than a song. Instead it’s the encapsulation of everything exciting about modern music. Tonight it’s more masterful than ever, the crowd calling back every word. From the moment it first skipped into its SoundCloud player, it felt special. The epitome of the track you’d discover, play a hundred times and still reach for repeat, entire genres spend decades trying to come up with anything quite so perfect.

But that’s Chvrches all over. Still to miss a step, it isn’t just what’s realised that’s exciting. A band like this - one who know the space around them so damn well - are capable of anything. What comes next could be even better.

Chvrches played:

We Sink
Lies
Lungs
Gun
Night Sky
Science/Visions
Recover
Tether
Under The Tide
By The Throat

Tags: News, CHVRCHES, Festivals