All good things must come to an end, and sadly that includes bands, too. We were at Rescue Rooms as local metal group Palm Reader were given an emotional send-off...
Rescue Rooms was emotionally charged on this particular Sunday evening. Nottingham metal band Palm Reader were about to play their final headline show, with their last-ever show happening at 2000Trees Festival on 12th July. After 13 glorious years of music, the band
have decided to call it a day with one final Nottingham gig.
Before the main event, we had two acts to play first. Opening the show was the mathrock/emo band Blight Town, a Nottingham group who’ve played some killer shows before and this was no exception. While the crowd didn’t immediately turn up for them, they played like the venue was full and by the end got a brilliant reaction from the whole room.
Acting as main support for the whole tour are Love Is Noise, a band that sit in between the melodic style of nu metal that Linkin Park perfected, and the more sensual groove-driven style of Deftones, with a bit of Sleep Token influence as well. As the audience grew and grew, they kept getting better and better, with each song showing off different sides to their sound and allowing nuances and subtleties to shine through that previous ones didn’t, giving us an in-depth glimpse into their musical mindset in the space of just half an hour. Another excellent set from a band who will hopefully return soon.
Predictably though, neither band’s reaction touched that of Palm Reader’s. From the second they walked out to a packed Rescue Rooms to the final, misty-eyed moments onstage, it was go time. Opening the set by saying “Nottingham… One last time…” was an easy way to get everybody either tearing up or ready to mosh, which worked equally well for both. Playing songs from all four full-length albums, they got to every part of their wonderful discography – the midset album one combo of Seeing and Believing are Two Different Things into Spineless was a thrilling blast from the past, and following it with Stacks, off album two, was no less crazy.
While the 12-song main set was a beast on its own, the two-song encore was as powerful a show by itself as any full set you could see. The room gave themselves up for Palm Reader, each audience member full of love and emotion, matched by the seven members of the band onstage. It was a beautiful finale for a band who deserved no less than that, and a send off befitting their stellar career. Palm Reader, the UK and Nottingham scenes thank you.
Palm Reader performed at Rescue Rooms on 7th July 2024, with support from Blight Town and Love Is Noise.
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