Stand Atlantic, Honey Revenge and Slowly Slowly
XOYO // Birmingham, England // 19 September 2024
Photos and review by Sophie Jones
Opening the night was Slowly Slowly, hailing from Melbourne like their counterparts in Stand Atlantic. This was new ground for them, as this was their first run of shows outside of their country. Bringing an indie rock sound with pop influences here and there, they set an interesting tone for the night ahead. To note, you can catch them on their headline run in the UK in March 2025.
Next up was Honey Revenge, who had generated quite the buzz around the room already, even though they hadn’t taken to the stage yet; I noticed this amongst people’s whisperings around the room as I was quite excited to see them myself.
Lead singer Devin Papadol burst onto the stage in an electrifying pink flurry of excitement to coordinate with fellow members all in their pink fits. I’ve honestly never seen such an energetic, full of smiles band throughout their whole set. You could tell they were loving life as guitarist Donovan Lloyd had the biggest smile on his face as he bounced around high kicking all over the place, I was part expecting his Pink Croc shoe to come flying off but it didn’t.
Now it was time for Stand Atlantic and the excitement was high. The stage cast a red ambient glow as the band arrived on stage, Lead singer Bonnie Fraser took to the mic to start the night off with “‘WAKE UP-SIT DOWN-SHUT UP,” “hair out” and “ Jurassic Park.” I mean what a way to open and set the tone for the rest of the evening.
Halfway through the set, we saw things slow right down for a brief moment to lead into “Toothpick.” This was followed by a merging of Train’s “Drops of Jupiter,” which the band incorporated into a beautiful interlude. This gave the audience a brief moment of rest before they were encouraged to create circle pits and crowd surf the rest of the night.
By the time we reached “LOVE U ANYWAY”’ from their new album WAS HERE, Stand Atlantic have built a real rapport with the crowd and you could feel the energy in the room. Following “LOVE U ANYWAY” was “Pity Party” which Bonnie stated was about her love life.
Throughout the night we saw multiple guests join the band on stage; Holly Minto from Crawlers joined the band during “Deathwish.” To close the night out, we saw Devin Papadol from Honey Revenge perform the guest vocals on “GIRL$.”
