Pale Waves Bring Dark Glamour and Stadium Energy to O₂ Ritz Manchester
- Desh Kapur
- Oct 20
- 2 min read
O2 Ritz, Manchester 16th October 2025
IMAGES AND WORDS DESH KAPUR
STILL SMITTEN TOUR
All of a sudden, the house music cuts out. The lights drop. The crowd – mostly black eyeliner, glitter and vintage tees – erupts. And then boom: Pale Waves stride out like they own the place. Heather Baron-Gracie, jet-black hair and floor-length coat straight out of The Matrix, grabs the mic and launches into “Perfume”. The Ritz floors literally bounce.
From the first note, it’s clear: Pale Waves are no longer the shiny newcomers from My Mind Makes Noises. They’re a band completely in their element – darker, louder, more dangerous. The Manchester faithful know it too; this is their city, their crowd, and it feels like a homecoming.
They tear through a career-spanning set: “Perfume”, “Television Romance”, “Eighteen”, “Change”, “Lies”, “There’s a Honey”, “Jealousy” – all fizzing with emo-pop sheen and thick guitar crunch. When they drop “Not a Love Song”, the place turns into a sweaty, glitter-lit sing-along. And their cover of “Zombie”? A gutsy nod to The Cranberries that hits harder live than you’d think.
Pale Waves have always danced between goth heartbreak and glossy pop, but tonight they sound huge – shimmering guitars, pulsing drums, and choruses built for rooms ten times this size. It’s that perfect mash-up of 80s shimmer and 00s angst: a bit of Prince, a touch of Madonna, maybe even The Bangles if they’d grown up on Tumblr. And at the centre of it all, Heather’s voice – somewhere between Dolores O’Riordan’s ache and Taylor Swift’s pop precision – slicing through the chaos.
The crowd never lets up. Bodies on shoulders, confetti of beer, every lyric screamed back like scripture. Pale Waves have always worn their emotions like armour, and that vulnerability powers everything they do. Their songs dig into sexuality, depression, heartbreak, and self-discovery – and somehow make all of it sound euphoric.
By the time they close with “Jealousy”, the Ritz feels like it might actually explode. Guitars howl, lights flare, and Heather’s final words fade into a wall of noise and adoration.
Pale Waves aren’t the future of British pop anymore. They’re the now. And in Manchester tonight, they proved exactly why.
SET LIST
Perfume
Not a Love Song
Eighteen
Lies
You're So Vain
Zombie
(The Cranberries cover)
There's a Honey
Change
Red
She
(First time since 2019)
My Obsession
Kiss Me Again
Television Romance
Glasgow
Encore:
She's My Religion
Jealousy
CONNECT WITH PALE WAVES
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