Live Review: Hurts – 22nd May 2025 – Brixton Academy, London, UK
5 min read
It’s been a really long time since we have been at a show and walked away feeling utterly blown away and speechless at what we had just witnessed. I am of course talking about last night’s stellar UK return of Manchester duo, Hurts who have been absent from the UK for 7 years but were welcomed back to the capital with open arms and ear-deafening roars of adoration from a crowd hungry to hear the bands iconic debut and back catalogue of alt-pop juggernauts.
It’s been 15 years since the synthpop pair released their groundbreaking debut album, Happiness and it was an epic celebration last night of that breakthrough record from Hurts, which consists of Theo Hutchcraft and Adam Anderson, as the band brought the collection to London’s Brixton Academy. Spawning massive singles like Stay and Wonderful Life, Happiness put Hurts on the musical map and prepared the band for the release of several albums that would follow.
The celebration of this milestone for Happiness has meant that fans are now able to hear the entirety of the record in a live setting and we were lucky enough to be invited over to the venue to see the band’s return to the capital. However, it wasn’t to be for one half of the band as Hutchcraft dedicated his mid-set performance of Affair to an absent Adamson – explaining to the crowd that he was saddened that his bandmate was not able to make it on tour this year (having been dealing and recovering from problems with his mental health) – before playing through a soft, acoustic solo of the song; a very contrasting number to the rest of the set that was structured as a giant Berghain-inspired live masterpiece.
The first half of the set was as most celebratory live sets go with the band running through their iconic debut in order and in perfectly matched arrangement to the original recordings but in the live setting these songs become much, MUCH bigger goliaths of their former selves. Opening the show with alt-pop earwork, Silver Lining, Hutchcraft emerged onto a fully decked out stage dressed in a black suit, long signature white scarf and hair slicked back and was met with one of the biggest responses from a crowd that we have ever heard. The song was a powerful opening highlight, one of many to showcase Hutchcraft’s distinctive and emotive vocals which filled the venue and was followed by equally punchy performances of the more poppy Wonderful Life, Blood, Tears & Gold and Sunday, transforming Brixton Academy into a giant mosh pit as Theo shouted out to his followers, “Brixton, it’s time to dance”.
Massive album single Stay brought the tempo down and allowed the crowd to belt back the chorus to Hutchcraft who would occasionally position himself on top of the centre stage amp and point the mic in the direction of his audience with a smile wrapped from one ear to the other in awe of the reception he was receiving. “Thank you for fifteen years of this album”, the singer told his fans as the song marked the first of many where he would throw white roses out across the audience who scrambled to get hold of one so that could hold them high in the air and sway along to the rest of the set.
Further career highlights including Devotion (which featured Kylie Minogue on the original recording) and Illuminated reverberated through the venue with their deep, Berlin-esque beats that literally shook the Brixton venue’s floor and gave us goosebumps. We could even spot several members of the crowd with tears in their eyes.
The band were one of the tightest we have heard at a show and included a 4-piece string section that complimented each of the songs performed during the set with a haunting instrumentation, taking the sound of each song performed to an entirely new level. Standing above them were two incredible female backing vocalists that tore the roof off the venue at every given opportunity to shine. Not wanting to settle at this, the confident yet extremely humble front-man even brought with him an opera singer who stood on a raised platform during the bands performances of Silver Lining, Illuminated and Happiness set closer, Verona; tearing through the venue with his powerful baritone vocal and creating an even more dramatic setting for the bands repertoire to be delivered within.
Adding to the celebrations of the Happiness record, Hutchcraft dished up a string of other career notables for fans to sing along to while a pair of backing dancers performed alongside the singer in perfect synchronization – bending and flexing during half of the set numbers and being given a moment to showcase their extraordinary skills during brief instrumental, Mother Nature.
Big single accomplishments like Miracle and Somebody To Die For were placed into the second half of the night and once again had the venue pulsating with the gritty, industrial instrumentation that made the show feel like a Wembley Stadium spectacle crammed into the confines of Brixton Academy, with stage lighting to match.
Transforming the venue into a massive rave, Hutchcraft also delivered exceptional, blood-pumping performances of club anthems Nothing Will Be Bigger Than Us and Under Control – the latter being a hit for the band as a collaboration with dancefloor icon, Calvin Harris – showing off the bands versatility as stage performers and their ability to find success in moody balladry as well as on the dance charts.
Last nights Hurts show at Brixton Academy was not simply a concert or a show. It was a spectacular, emotional, groundbreaking and fully-charged career retrospective form one of the greatest live acts out there right now. I have seen over 500 concerts in my time but nothing prepared me for the sheer scale of last nights performance – it was just of an entirely different level. With their next performance in the appropriate setting of of the city of Berlin tomorrow night. German fans are in for quite a treat.
Setlist:
Silver Lining
Wonderful Life
Blood, Tears & Gold
Sunday
Stay
Illuminated
Affair
Evelyn
Better Than Love
Devotion
Mother Nature
Unspoken
The Water
Verona
Miracle
Some Kind Of Heaven
Rolling Stone
Somebody To Die For
Voices
Ready To Go
Nothing Will Be Bigger Than Us
Under Control
Wings
::: RenownedForSound.com’s Editor and Founder –
Interviewing and reviewing the best in new music and globally recognized artists is his passion.
Over the years he has been lucky enough to review thousands of music releases and concerts and interview artists ranging from top selling superstars like 27-time Grammy Award winner Alison Krauss, Boyz II Men, Roxette, Cyndi Lauper, Lisa Loeb and iconic Eagles front man/songwriter, Glenn Frey through to more recent successes including Newton Faulkner, Janelle Monae and Caro Emerald.
Brendon manages and coordinates the amazing team of writers on RenownedForSound.com who are based in the UK, the U.S and Australia.
