Music
Support Act: Reasons to turn up early this month
Don't miss these top acts opening for your favourite band in the coming weeks
We’ve all been guilty of it, the mental gymnastics of working how long you’ll have to rush to the venue after work, cram a Pret a Manger down you for dinner and meet your friend for a drink or two before getting into the venue just before the headliner walks on at nine.
But there’s a lot to be said for getting down to your next show early. Forget the stress of carving your way through crowds to find some sort of view of the singer. Get a lay of lands so you know your bars from your toilets and cloakrooms. Above all, catch the support act. It’s often one handpicked by the headliner you’re here to see, or a local act you never know existed, one that’ll likely be a headliner of their own in a year or two.
In this new series, we’ll be highlighting a few of our highly recommended support acts opening your favourite artist in the coming weeks.
Trueno
At just the age of 23, Argentinian rapper Trueno has already worked with the likes of Cyprus Hill, J Balvin and DJ Premier. Damon and Albarn and co. clearly took a shine to him too, inviting him to perform ‘Clint Eastwood’ when they performed at Quilmes Rock festival in 2022. Expect a good balance of classic hip hop and reggaeton beats when he gets these UK arenas warmed up.
Delta Sleep
Coming out of the math rock heyday of the late 2000s, Delta Sleep have propelled the genre into something else entirely and have enjoyed global success as a result. Balancing guitar tones both jagged and crystalline while the rhythm section deals chaos or fun according to its whim, the band will appeal to fans of indie rock, emo and the nicher subsets in between.
Etta Marcus
Etta Marcus is a South London born singer-songwriter whose brooding atmospherics and gentle folk rock will certainly catch the ears of Lana Del Ray and Phoebe Bridgers fans. Expect her latest EP Devour to sound mega live, counterbalancing Sigrid’s euphoric energy nicely with some crisp and gloomy guitar music.
Elliot James Reay
Supporting Benson Boone’s postponed Birmingham show on 15 March – find tickets here
With his brilliantined quiff and songs sung with swoony vibrato, Elliot James Reay is something of an Elvis for the TikTok generation. But there’s a real quality to his rockabilly music that pushes deeper than just aesthetics, making it hard not to be charmed by this young Mancunian.
