The queue for the women’s toilets was out past the merch stand and into the main stairwell. Any frequenter of the Barrowlands knows exactly what this means: an all female band with a strong female audience. The long toilet queue combined with having little issue seeing over the crowd at my staggering height of 5 foot 6 (despite the annoying tall and awkward accessory of someone’s random boyfriend), created the perfect environment of fans. Specifically The Beaches fans. The Beaches know exactly who they are, and clearly so do their fans.

Opening the show were Dea Matrona, an Irish duo out of Belfast. With a sort of witchy aesthetic and the ability to pull off black micro shorts in that ever-so-casual  way, I remain jealous. Dea Matrona are unequivocally cool. With that Florence Road, The Last Dinner Party, Chloe Slater type sound, Dea Matrona brought great vocals and a stage presence that seemed to effortlessly captivate. The star of their set, however, was Glory, an early song performed acoustically by just Orlaith Forsythe and Mollie McGinn themselves. With those whole and haunting harmonies filling the ballroom, I nearly turned to the guys next to me to kindly ask them to shut up, they were really ruining the vibe. Dea Matrona did everything a great supporting act should; warm up the crowd, correctly set the tone, introduce people to great new music, and, in the case of Barrowlands, make a joke about how they’ve ‘never tried Irn Brn’. 

The Beaches opened the show with ‘Last Girls at the Party’. It was immediately high energy, a fan favourite song, and provided ample opportunity for my favourite activity to do at a gig: scream super loud when the band asks ‘how is everybody doing tonight?” Jordan Miller’s vocals were positively authentic and filled the ballroom. Watching guitarists Leandra Earl and Kylie Miller shred the guitar parts of “Can I Call You in the Morning”, I couldn’t help but think about how jealous that I’m not also in a band. So if anyone needs an extremely mediocrely talented personality hire for their band, please call me. 

Following a few songs from their newest album No Hard Feelings, they slowed things down with a cover. Introducing it as a recent recording at BBC that they’ve never played live before, and likely will never play live again, I was immediately hooked. Everyone likes to feel special, right?  The traditional rendition of the classic masterpiece, Stevie Nicks’ “Silver Springs” was simply great. Jordan Miller aiming to prove that you really can’t ever “get away from the sound of the woman that haunts you”, I was convinced. 

Finally building to their most streamed song “Blame Brett”, named after lead singer Jordan Miller’s ex-boyfriend Brett Emmons, you cannot help but commend their honesty. Emmons, of The Glorious Sons, is forever memorialised as that guy from The Beaches song (sorry to any Glorious Sons fans out there, I don’t imagine many of you are reading this or even exist). Despite my criticisms of the newest album, No Hard Feelings, having an almost overly cohesive sound with each song nearly bleeding into the next. I couldn’t help myself from screaming that I hate Brett too. Before performing Did I Say Too Much, the 2025 single about oversharing too early and being a little too invested, the band brought a fan onstage. In typical Jordan Miller fashion, she shared a story about embarrassing herself after her breakup with Emmons and prompted the fan to tell the crowd her story. As the whole crowd screamed ‘fuck him’ and basked in communal hatred over this random girl’s ex boyfriend, the band reminded me of those girls you meet in a bathroom at 2am and they tell you their whole life story. 

Pushing the show even further was Leandra Earl and Jordan Miller’s stripped back performance of ‘Lesbian of the Year’. The emotional peak of the show, Earl shared her story of coming out and finding queerness later in life, even sharing how she lost her virginity to a guy from Dundee. Performed with just a keyboard and Miller’s vocals, the crowd was completely captured, or at least I was. 

The show ended with Earl pretending to flash the audience and each member of the band standing hand and hand to bow. Lingering after the final song, they handed out every drumstick, guitar pick, and set list to the front rows of fans. With a powerful, albeit simple, sound The Beaches care for fans and always seem to let you in on the secret.