The Pigeon Detectives, with the support of Fling and Norwich based band HANK, kicked off their Christmas tour at The Waterfront, Norwich on Friday 23 November.

HANK, from Norwich, were the first band on stage and they were given the always daunting task of kicking the night off. The band is formed of Ash Woolnough as lead singer, his brother Jordan Woolnough on guitar, Tom McGeady on bass and Ben Mollett on Drums. With their own style of indie and math-rock shining through on every track HANK are a very exciting band to watch and I expect bigger and better things lie ahead for them in the new year. HANK absolutely smashed their set, another band the city of Norwich and the surrounding area should be extremely proud of.

Next up on stage were the much funkier sounding Fling, who are a band originating from Bradford. Fling are the main support act for The Pigeon Detectives on this tour and their sound can best be described as a mad mix inspired from bands such as Arctic Monkey's, the 1975 and Sundara Karma. Combining the band's great showmanship along with their unique sound creates an intriguing new-wave indie band. Fling's first album, FLING OR DIE, will be release in February 2019 and we will hear a lot more from Charles McSorley (lead singer) and the rest of Fling next year. The Waterfront crowd were extremely lucky to see two great support acts in one night, which can often be a rare occurrence.

After two fantastic support acts the time had come for The Pigeon Detectives to wow the Norwich crowd. The band came running out to start the show with their second biggest UK chart hit This Is An Emergency and packed the early set with songs such as I Found Out, Wolves and Better Not Look My Way.

The tour was advertised as a sing along of the bands greatest hits and it completely delivered. Lead singer Matt Bowman put an unrivalled amount of energy into the set and you can tell he still loves to play live now just as much as he did when they first formed in 2002.

After preforming the first half of the set Bowman took a breather and spoke to the crowd about football for 30 seconds which started a chant of 'we are top of the league' in reference to Norwich City's current championship placing.

I have seen the band preform once before at their homecoming gig in Leeds but the Waterfront crowd were just as lively and as loud as the packed out 02 academy in Leeds. The bounce and passion from the Norwich crowd can only be a testament to The Pigeon Detectives and the amount of energy the band put into every show.

Although at times they did seem constrained by such a small stage and perhaps the LCR would have been a better suited venue for such an act, the limitation on space didn't become a hindrance but instead it was used to create a very intimate gig where every person was dancing and singing away.

The band finished their set with Take Her Back and came on for an encore to finish with I'm Not Gonna Take This and I'm Not Sorry. Front man Matt Bowman finished the set with a stage dive into the crowd and was subsequently escorted by security from the stage, but that didn't ruin the night.

Despite having five very successful albums, forming in 2002 and having preformed shows all over the world, The Pigeon Detectives are just as good now as they have ever been, if not better. A band who managed to emerge from an over saturated era of indie bands are still putting 110% into every show and if you ever get the opportunity to see them live you won't regret it.