Five months after their debut release, ‘Baby’, something has
changed. Tribes have seen a significant shift in the demography of their
audience; from the artsy festival goers’ thoughtful nods to teenage screams and
handmade banners, the band now look out to a increasingly passionate teenage
following (lead singer Johnny Lloyd dedicates the encore to two young girls who
have attended every show of the tour). Maybe it’s the extensive touring of the
album, maybe it’s the beginnings of Lloyds’s evolution into ‘rock front man’,
or perhaps, with an increasing absence of guitar music in popular culture, Tribes
are now an answer for those who don’t sign up to the general apathy and mass
consecration to Cowell and the X-Factor machine.
Album opener, ‘Whenever’, is a particular highlight, and
Tribes well rehearsed and tightly refined pop-grunge validates their
popularity, showing just why they have been the recipients of high critical
acclaim. Aside from a small dip in tempo in the middle, presumably to give the
album tracks one last run out; Tribes’ show is excitably received, with main
finale and indie ‘hit’, ‘We Were Children’, proving particularly rapturous.
Whilst there are signs of obvious enjoyment from the band,
there is a sense that the episode of ‘Baby’ is about to finish, and a new album
may be what Tribes need to continue growing up. This inevitably poses questions
for both band and fans as to the direction of the next album. Whether a
conscious decision to remain critically respected and resist the temptation to
resign into a potentially dangerous zone of popular mass appeal, consequently ‘doing
a Razorlight’, is as yet unknown, but here, on the last day of their UK tour,
Tribes seem happy to roll out the album, and as well they might.
