We travelled to Hull for a gig on a Sunday night. Not a sentence I’d usually type, being a Leeds-based reviewer, but any excuse to see The Amazons. And with a Swim School mash-up thanks to the tour support gods, in a fantastic venue such as The Welly, it was nothing short of a pre-Christmas treat.

Although The Amazons haven’t brought out new music this year, and they also waved goodbye to their drummer at the end of 2022, you wouldn’t have known they’d been hunkering down somewhat in 2023. Well, only in regards to penning new music; they’ve certainly been busy on the road, playing all kinds of venues across the pond and closer to home. They’re refined in what they deliver, witty in demeanour, but never quiet.

The stage, in its almost blinding, kaleidoscopic lights, was set for Swim School at 8pm. They’re Edinburgh’s finest for a reason. I’ve had the pleasure of chatting to their frontwoman, Alice, after one of their shows before, and they were just as sound via the mic last night in Hull as they were back in 2021. The difference now? They just have far more nestled comfortably under their belts. And there to gift this East Yorkshire, football-chanting audience an almighty bout of Scottish talent, they played a setlist comprising bangers such as ‘Delirious’ and ‘See Red’, alongside the softer ‘Kill You’ and ‘Everything You Wanted’. It had the ultimate blend of buoyant and melancholy, and I was proud to have stood there as one of their pre-existing fans.

Having had the mood set impeccably by Swim School, it was only natural The Amazons took that metaphorical lit match and torched the room with blazing hit after hit. To everyone’s delight, ‘In My Mind’ and ‘Black Magic’ were in there, along with ‘Ultraviolet’, which smartly came with lighting in the same hue.

As strings were ferociously picked, muted and shredded, ‘1925’ and ‘Doubt It’ were magnificent and woven in with newer tunes, too. Of course, nobody in that crowd was over the brilliance of ‘Bloodrush’ or ‘Ready For Something’. But the icing on top of the cake for me — and don’t get me wrong, I was in awe of their thunderous delivery of drawn-out rock and roll — was their inclusion of the brand-new, as-yet-unreleased ‘Night After Night’. A classic Zons-style belter, with roof-raising, high-pitched vocal accompaniments for maximum catchiness.

Everyone was on their feet in Hull — and they didn’t want to get off them.