The Review: Hurts at The Troxy

LIGHTS, camera at the ready… action! And Hurts’ gig – complete with unbelievable light show – at The Troxy last Saturday night was certainly a visual treat.

First of all, I have to say that the Troxy is such an incredible venue. Every inch of it is designed beautifully in my favourite style – Art Deco. So it’s difficult to drag your eyes away from the gorgeous scenery that meets you at every turn.

But Hurts, Theo Hutchcraft and Adam Anderson, certainly outperformed their incredible surroundings.

I’m a big fan of Hurts – I love their 80s, synth-drenched austere vibe. The band’s’ backcatalogue has it’s own unique vibe – if you hear a track by them, you know immediately that it’s Hurts.

Hurts at The Troxy

Before the gig I did have concerns that they may be a little low-key, as all their songs carry the same haunting, ethereal, goth-tinged, epic quality but that totally wasn’t the case. Theo broke his suited and booted visual ego to work the crowd. In fact Hurts were a lot more ‘pop’ than anticipated, with a slightly older audience than I’d expected.

Highlights include Wonderful Life, Miracle, and Illuminated… one slight blip was Blind – which sounds too much like the song that Gary Barlow penned for Matt Cardle, but we’ll skip over that.

You can hear the background influence of other groups – such as Nine Inch Nails, Queen and Depeche Mode – which, as they are three of my favourite bands is no bad thing!

And the staging and light show was impeccable. There wasn’t a moment where you could tear your eyes away from the stage and it totally added to the atmosphere of the whole gig.

My only complaint was that the rest of the audience weren’t dressed as sharply as Hurts were. More effort next time please!