Gig of the week - Tribes, Shepherd's Bush Empire

They shot to fame almost instantly – helped in large part by their first release coming with an effortlessly cool vid shot on a Camden rooftop, cementing their history-soaked origins – and did the festival rounds last year, before completing a headline tour of their own and NME tour slot in February.

Citing their influences as REM, Nirvana and the Pixies, Tribes have their ear rooted firmly in the grunge era, as one listen to Children – particularly vocalist Johnny Llloyd’s “we were children of the mid-Nineties” refrain – testifies.

But in their scuffed-up grunge leather-clad slacker chic, they’re more than just retro-tinged revivalists riding the trend of all things Nineties cool.  

Catchy choruses, skyscraper hooks and monstrous guitars abound across their debut, Baby, released earlier this year.

Since then, the boys have been on a tour to the US, indulging their most hedonistic rock ‘n’ roll fantasies in the land of their heroes, and even becoming the focus of tabloid gossip when a story emerged wondering whether or not guitarist Dan White was ‘romantically linked’ with than Lost In Translation star Scarlett Johansson.

This headline show is their largest yet for a band no doubt keen to continue the strides they took last year.

Fri, Apr 27 | Doors at 7.30pm |  £12.50
Shepherd’s Bush Empire, Shepherd’s Bush Green, W12 8TT
Tube | Shepherd's Bush | o2shepherdsbushempire.co.uk