REVIEW: VISTAS at The Leadmill

Written by Charlie Sweeney

It’s a weird thing, seeing a band you were really into outgrow you. I remember when I first found VISTAS for myself, when their 2017 single ‘Strong Swimmer’ popped up in one of my Spotify ‘Discover Weekly’ playlists. It was brilliant, I grew absolutely obsessed with it, and the rest of their discography. They were one of the first bands I ever saw live, at (Birmingham’s best venue) The Sunflower Lounge, and they absolutely lived up to my 15-year-old hype for the gig. They were one of the first bands I also remember getting actively involved in their release cycle for, buying up their split vinyl with Marsicans, as well as their first ever EP, Hello (I still have this!). They were even the first band I interviewed, in a badly-written blog which will never see the light of day. They were, honest to god, one of my favourite bands.

But then, for whatever reason, I slowly drifted from listening to VISTAS. Or, to put it more accurately, I drifted away from new VISTAS. That is not an indictment of their new stuff, it is clearly well-written, sounds good, and their audience love it. I just stopped paying attention, for whatever reason, and then suddenly they have three albums out and are packing out venues like The Leadmill. A far cry from when I saw them in 2017!

I say all this because watching VISTAS at The Leadmill last week was such a surreal experience for me. If you had spoke to me in 2018, I could have listed off every single song they had done, probably knew all the lyrics, and was genuinely obsessed with them. I even wore their merch! Yet, last week, I maybe knew three songs that they did? Four at most? But it wasn’t like one of those wank-y pretentious gigs, where a Britpop band from the 90s insists on performing all their new stuff in full, without a single thought for their most popular album, with the crowd seething in rage. No, the crowd was absolutely loving it. They were fucking bouncing.

Genuinely, every song got such a good reaction from the crowd. The band are brilliant at knowing exactly what the audience wants from them, and are just generally such a talented live act. ‘Tigerblood’ and ‘Calm’ were particular highlights for me, mainly as they were the only songs I knew, but also because they were just done brilliantly. They even finished with ‘Retrospect’, and you better believe I was absolutely belting that out at the top of my lungs.

VISTAS’ whole set was brilliant. It was simply great, everyone clearly enjoyed it and they are an immensely talented band. I just couldn’t help but feel a bit left-out, however; not by anything the band did, but by the realisation that their music, by and large, is not for me anymore.