Irish quartet Sprints rock up at the Woodsies Stage on Sunday afternoon having just announced that All That Is Over, the follow up to their excellent debut album Letter To Self is on its way. The band saw a significant rise in profile with the release of that first album, thanks to some glowing reviews, and there is a healthy crowd gathered to see if they can build on the promise.
Opening with a new song, Somethings Gonna Happen, is a risky move, but its slightly folksy post-punk sounds massive and lead singer and guitarist Karla Chubb immediately looks every inch the star on stage. Chubb is excellent, and, with no disrespect to her bandmates, without her Sprints would not be the same band at all. Her piercing eyes, framed by a mop of fiery red hair, glare into the crowd as she sings, her idiosyncratic voice coming from a curled lip and her body shaking as she moves in time with the music. When Sprints do finally play a song people know, third song Heavy, the energy off the stage ramps up.
Sprints are certainly at their best when they go for raucous, ramshackle punk, such as the aforementioned Heavy or the gritty, dark, chugging Cathedral rather than the slightly more boppy indie of How Does the Story Go. It’s certainly all going rather well regardless, and new single Descartes offers a tantalising teaser for the future, but the undoubted highlight, certainly in terms of crowd reaction, is when the band bring on Kate Nash to cover her 2007 hit Foundations (adding in a little snippet of The Ting Tings That’s Not My Name is a pretty genius move for the 2000’s nostalgia lovers as well). Suddenly Sprints have people running from outside of the tent to the front of the stage to jump around and sing along with them. It’s one of Glastonbury’s nicest little surprises.
You’d think then, that with all these extra eyes on them and the energy levels ramped up as high as they will go, that Sprints would hit Glastonbury with one more massive banger and stride off victorious. Instead, they decide to play the slow building, experimental drone of Little Fix to finish things. No shade on the song as a piece of art or writing, but it’s a proper vibe killer after such a joyous moment. It means Sprints leave with a bit of a whimper rather than a bang.
Still, they shouldn’t be a band that have to rely on covers anyway, hopefully once more people become aware of their own material they’ll be rapturously received all their way through their set in the future. A decent showing, and today Sprints have certainly laid the, ahem, foundations for bigger things.
