In an explosive performance, The Amazons balanced rage and radiance in a Rock City set that felt less like a gig and more like a reckoning...
Walking back through the doors of a Rock City gig always feels like a homecoming. The quiet anticipation that lives in the walls and seeps through the static of the speakers is enveloping; a venue made for sweat and sound, you can’t help breathing in the adoration already fostering in the air. Perhaps that’s just the taste of City’s IPA well and truly flowing, but the Amazons couldn’t have chosen a better place to test the shape of their new skin.
Overpass take the stage like they’ve been here before in another life. Having caught their live shows a handful of times as both support and headliner, it’s a welcoming self-assurance that they don’t waste time talking and just dive straight in. Their set pulsing with a kind of youthful confidence that feels earned, it’s not surprising that the crowd are well on their way to bopping their heads comfortably – being a Sunday night, we’re taking a little more tonal teasing than usual to be coaxed into the concert camaraderie – and by the fifth song, Take It or Leave It, the room tips over from curiosity to full-body movement.
Guitars snarl and shimmer, bathing the crowd in molten gold; drums hit like a held-in breath finally exhaled, light and sound fusing into something quietly euphoric. 3AM then changes the colour of the air entirely. A slower, romantic haze of purple fog and flickering strobes that feel like lightning seen through half-closed eyes... and then suddenly, Joe Had a Gun and a low red mist rolls across the stage. A single piano note crescendos The Amazons’ arrival.
Frontman Matt Thomson steps into the misty-eyed lighting, voice bared hauntingly with the piano carrying it like a confession. When the full band drops in, you can feel their energy reverberating through your ribcage and down into the soles of your feet – from there, Ready For Something follows like a dawn breaking. A new voice in Ella McRobb, who brings an ethereal and necessary quality to their sound, her harmonies thread through Matt’s voice like light through smoke. Softening the edges of the guitars, In My Mind flips that fragility into fury.
“This one’s for all the young men who think they’re right... but are very f*****g wrong.”
Matt introduces 25 with a cynical smirk, and the song itself lands somewhere between confession and exorcism. A searing, red-lit blur of riffs and self-awareness, the crowd howl back every line like they’d been waiting to let it out.
Arguably, Go All the Way is the emotional centrepiece. Matt and Ella's voices meet halfway through the pitter-pattering of the piano keys – his gravel, her silk – and weave effortlessly through the quietness of the ensemble. It’s a vulnerable visceral track and a reminder that power doesn’t always come from volume. Of course, without the warning comes the contrast: Love Is A Dog From Hell, bursting with swagger and momentum, is proof that The Amazons can still do full-bodied rock without losing their new tenderness. The lighting chases every beat: deep red strobes for defiance, flashes of white for euphoria.
“You can expect a bit more existential dread in the new records, if that’s your bag.” Between songs, Matt is all flustered cables and endearing honesty. “Entering your thirties, personal turmoil, and the constant incessant bulls**t we are seeing on our screens. If you’re a band in 2025 not trying to be political then what are you gonna be talking about?
“Rock and roll is a valid frame which you can view the world. It’s not Mick Jagger’s saggy skin – it's in Rock City right now.”
He nearly forgets to introduce the band, then laughs at himself for having done so every night of tour before tonight. He dedicates Georgia to Ella’s parents who met at Rock City (“romance at its stickiest”) and are in the crowd tonight, showcasing how it’s a track which glows from the inside out before any note rings true.
This is what The Amazons do best now: balance and release. They’ve found a new texture, a grown-up kind of wildness that knows when to whisper. You can feel the maturity in every layer. Three guitars weaving together, the bass grounding everything in pulse and gravity, the final stretch pulses together to turn chorus into communion. Junk Food Forever, Stay With Me and Ultraviolet - a beautiful medley of memories being written in real time. It's the sound of a band stepping into their full power, no longer chasing youth anymore yet owning its scars.
When it ends, it doesn’t really end. The last chord of Black Magic rings out, then lingers – hanging in the air, in your chest, in the grin you didn’t realise you were wearing. The lights fade, the house music seeps back in, and everyone looks a little dazed, like they’ve just woken from the same dream.
We spill out onto Talbot Street with our ears ringing and breath clouding in the night air. The buzz hasn’t gone; it’s humming through the pavement and reassures you (if there wasn’t even the slightest smidge of doubt after that gig) that The Amazons have always known how to make noise. They’ve found something close to transcendence here tonight. You could call it 21st century fiction...
The Amazons performed at Rock City on 26th October 2025
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