Opening the night was Soft Launch. I’d not heard of the band before, and must confess I let out an audible groan when five skinny white boys strode out onto the stage; making the line up of the night’s show thirteen white men in total, with just one woman - Isobel Torres, guitarist for McKenna’s band. My initial reaction warmed slightly as I was impressed by their musical skill - in between each song, the boys swapped instruments, juggling electric, acoustic and bass guitars and a keyboard between them, as well as changing up lead vocalist. It was like One Direction if they could play instruments. 

Wunderhorse took to the stage next, delivering a performance that truly left my jaw open for its entirety. Jacob Slater is simply incredible - pitch perfect during each of the band’s complex songs, while remaining raw and guttural in his delivery. I luckily found myself in a little pocket of Wunderhorse fans within the crowd, as some of the rhinestoned girlies did look a bit taken aback by the pretty heavy set - although from my spot, everyone was equally blown away by the performance whether they had heard the band before or not.

Declan McKenna’s set was fantastic. I felt weirdly starstruck when he came onstage, despite not following his music for that long. His vibe while walking out in velvet blazer and orange-tinted sunglasses was truly that of a seasoned rockstar, which was ironic given his whole image is being a bit of a British dork. It was all a bit tongue in cheek, and he pulled it off superbly. I felt that infectious concert buzz, while the humour of this rockstar act united us with McKenna, like we were in on the joke. The stage was rather bizarrely dressed up with mountain-like peaks, as if we were on the moon - or perhaps in the terrain of a dried up beach, as the album title alludes to.

Opening with Sympathy of the new album, he wove older tracks like The Key to Life on Earth amongst his most recent releases. The crowd was incredibly engaged, screaming along the lyrics and moshing, especially for the older songs. Returning to the stage for an encore, McKenna and the band played crowd favourite Listen to You Friends, to the echoes of hoarse voices yelling along the iconic spoken bridge - the highlight of the night for me. Rounding the night off with Eventually Darling and McKenna’s now-expected closer, British Bombs, things took a slightly scary turn; after several moshpits opened to form one mega mosh, a huge chunk of the crowd went under. Screaming at the top of my lungs to try and get the unaware stampede to stop moving forwards, I was already having flashes of a headline in my mind; ‘Teens die in Declan McKenna mosh pit’. All resolved however, with girls emerging from the floor grinning and wide eyed, high off the adrenaline and chaos. Miraculously, there were no casualties. The drama of the moshpit elicited a certain camaraderie as we left the venue. Slipping Through My Fingers played out as the exit music, fitting after McKenna’s cover of the song led to a viral TikTok moment. It was a beautiful end to an incredible show, singing ABBA with thousands of strangers as we wound down Alexandra Palace’s hill.