LIVE REVIEW: Kids in Glass Houses, Dead Pony, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London, 18/12/2025
Photo Credit: Alia Thomas
After splitting up in 2014 and reuniting again nine years later, Kids in Glass Houses have had a very busy two and a half years. In 2023, their reunion show was at none other than Slam Dunk festival, and there they announced their first tour back later that year, where they’d be touring debut album, Smart Casual, to celebrate fifteen years of it. A year later they released their fifth album, Pink Flamingo, in October 2024 and that was followed with a tour of the album early 2025. Now? Now they’re back celebrating fifteen years of their second album, Dirt. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind you might say.
On Thursday night, Kids in Glass Houses fans headed to Shepherds Bush Empire for a good old night of nostalgia. Something that the band seem to be revelling in since their reunion, but with good reason. The venue was near sold out, packed with a lot of very excited millennials ready to revisit the good old days, but to warm us all up beforehand on this cold and wet evening we had the brilliant Dead Pony take to the stage. Dead Pony have been building quite the following over the last few years and it’s no real surprise. The quartet from Scotland give enough passion and energy to work bigger rooms than this one, and have had some incredible opportunities this year with an appearance at Download Festival and opening for the likes of Don Broco earlier in the year as well as Kids In Glass Houses on this tour. They’re definitely making a name for themselves. Whether they were the best suited option sonically for this tour is debatable with their largely heavier rock sound compared to the pop-rock vibes of Kids In Glass Houses, but they didn’t hold back and played an incredible set all the same starting with the title track off their 2024 album, Ignore This. Their half hour set consisted of songs predominantly off this album, including MK Nothing, Rainbows and the popular MANA in which they ended with. With new fans made along the way, Dead Pony set the vibe for the rest of the show.
After a bit of a delay, it was time for the main event. With the stage consumed by a light haze and a dim backlight to set the scene, highlighting the pink flowers adorning the stage, referencing the album cover, Kids In Glass Houses appeared, greeted by the warmth of the roaring crowd. Kicking off this special album show with Artbreaker I, the room erupted with the sound of almost 2000 people screaming with glee and singing along. When Kids In Glass Houses were in their prime in the early 2000s/2010s they built somewhat of a cult following, and those fans have been loyal all this time, and as Aled said later on in the set, the world’s shit right now, so why not escape back to 2010 for an evening, and that we did. The band played the album through in full, and everyone was reminded of what a banger of an album it really was. When you’ve got songs like Matters At All and Sunshine you can expect nothing less than everyone on their feet singing along with the band. After an absolutely miserable day, the lyrics “stop wishing for the sunshine, start living in the rain” somehow hit differently… Especially with everything happening in the world right now. Some other fan favourites had to be Youngblood (Let It Out), For Better or Hearse which got everyone moving, and of course, Undercover Lover (but unfortunately no special appearance from Frankie Bridge to accompany that one for anyone who was hoping for one…) Even the lesser popular songs like Lilli Rose had the whole room singing along. It really was a wonderful thing to be a part of. The set slowed down with The Morning Afterlife and a sea of phone lights lit up the room. The song itself is beautiful on its own, but this really did feel special. After finishing the album on the final song, Artbreaker II, the encore entailed and if you hadn’t moved enough that evening, you were bound to with these last few songs. Bringing a highlight reel of some of the most popular songs across their various albums, the lads from Cardiff hit us with a finale to remember with Peace, The Theme from Pink Flamingo, a little Christmas special of Secret Santa (because it wouldn’t be Christmas without a pop-punk Christmas song), and finally, Give Me What I Want and all-time fan favourite, Saturday.
The lads always manage to bring the best out of people and tonight was no different. Shepherd’s Bush Empire was full of some very nostalgic, happy fans and what a beautiful penultimate show for the celebration of this fantastic album. So… Can we expect the trip down memory lane to continue with a fifteen-year celebratory tour of In Gold Blood next year? Who knows. We guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Words and Photos: Alia Thomas
