Russell Hughes@Newcastle Think Tank, September 20 2016
Pretty Vicious are a band on the way up. They don’t even watch other people’s gigs because they want their performances to be as pure as possible – and whether or not that makes them geniuses (or silly for missing out on so many good shows) will be revealed in the next few years.
There have been comparisons made between these four lads and a young Arctic Monkeys and you can certainly my see similarities in the way Alex Turner and lead singer Brad Griffiths handle themselves on stage.
It’s easy to forget that this group see still so young but as they grow and mature together Pretty Vicious could easily become the next rock force from the smartphone generation.
That said, it shows how far they have come in such a short amount of time when they couldn’t get through a 45 minute set without throwing in a cover – and it shows the tremendous age range they command when the oldies at the back nodded along to Iggy Pop while the young pups at the front waited patiently for the next original to begin.
Every song Pretty Vicious do have was greeted by the type of passion and commitment to music that bigger bands have struggled to command – indeed Think Tank was the busiest it’s been in a while for a group without even a full length album.
Pretty Vicious might only have 10 songs out there at the moment but they’ve stumbled on a formula and it’s working wonders for them. It feels incredibly natural with the teenagers and perhaps that does came back to them wanting to hone their own craft and not let anyone do it for them – perhaps they’ve just got bags of flair.
Their biggest song to date is the raucous Cave Song, which got the reception it deserved and then some as dozens of fans rushed on the stage to mosh with the band – whether they liked it or not. Security hated it, the band loved it – and so did the fans.