Sports Team made some new best friends at SCALA last night

Tonight the Cambridge six-piece host their long-anticipated, sold-out celebration - and their biggest headline show to date. Advertised as “Sports Team, with friends”, support comes from fellow Cambridgers Ugly, Brighton’s FUR, and So Young DJs, and every moment really does feels like a great night out with all your best mates. With the stage decked in flowers, two huge sharks made of tinfoil, and a net of balloons ready to be released, it’s clear from the get-go that Sports Team throw a wild party.

Alex Rice commands the stage. With a presence comparable to Jagger, Jarvis or David Byrne, he struts with the confidence of youth and flails with the freedom of being in one of the freshest bands on the scene. The band slam into ‘Camel Crew’, the track named by Noisey as one of the best British tunes in the first half of this year, and the whole room feels this. There’s a definite sense of togetherness as crowd surfers roll atop the waves of summer single ‘Margate’, high-fiving, kissing and shaking hands with Rice and each other.

By ‘Kutcher’, Rice has taken to climbing the speaker stacks, from where he adorns his followers with loving words, witty lyrics and the most flamboyant moves. After being sternly told off by security, he climbs down into the crowd instead to join the debauched frenzy as the band close out the night with ‘Stanton’.

In case you didn’t know it already, Sports Team have now cemented their place as one of the most exciting, intelligently exhilarating bands to see in 2018.