HATE TEQUILA ROSÉ, LOVE A SCOTTISH GIG | SPORTS TEAM GET THE CROWD ROWDY AT LA BELLE ANGELE
LIVE REVIEW | SPORTS TEAM w/ Pack Of Animals, Porij | LA BELLE ANGELE, EDINBURGH | 27th September 2026 by Jasmin Savage
Sports fans travel hundreds of miles to see their favourite team play, so I thought I’d do the same by seeing my favourite Sports Team, only I mean the London based-band, not a literal sports team. This particular Sports Team generated just about the equivalent in feral energy comparable to ‘football hooligans’, only with more poise about it at their show on Sunday.
After battling through torrential rain and a plethora of trains, I arrived in Edinburgh – greeted with surprisingly sunny skies and my cousin waiting for me at the station before making our way to La Belle Angele.
Pack of Animals kicked started the night at 7:30pm. The band felt straight from the 90s Britpop era with some grunge influences too, but I must say their stage presence was much livelier and engaging than the likes of one particular Britpop band (I won’t name names, you know who I mean). Coincidentally, around two weeks before the show, someone recommended Pack of Animals to me, so I did go into their set with a very vague idea of what to expect. However, the adrenaline of actually hearing the music live for myself was enthralling.
Unpolished and untamed grit fuelled their short set. Fuzzy riffs of ‘Ballerina’ hit and I immediately realised that this band do not play about when it comes to putting on a show to remember. They came to make their mark and it was working. ‘Tell Me You Love Me’ and ‘Scream’ etched their way into my brain and the next thing I knew, I was singing along to songs I’d only heard once or twice before
The addition of a rattling tambourine for ‘Pretend Perfect’ complemented the lingering snarling vocals, which continued into angsty track ‘The Everything’. Frontman Theo Munro riled up the crowd during and between songs, but he really controlled the room with ‘American Loud’’. The thudding drums and crashing tambourine had the people bopping and headbanging to the beat as Theo growled through the song, before closing out with ‘Rapids’. Despite the fact that the room was only about half full by this point, they filled out the empty space with a pure, untamed rockstar energy that burst across the room.
At 8:15pm, the Mancunian four-piece Porij took to the stage with what could only be described as sonical whiplash – fusing upbeat, high tempo, electronic dance music with live instruments. This perked up anyone who wasn’t already, shifting the place into a playful rave with tracks like ‘Ego’ and ‘Petit Boy’.
The way that all the live instruments blended with the house tracks was unbelievably satisfying, but the most impressive moment for me was when vocalist and keyboard player known as Egg pulled out a trumpet mid song and played it live perfectly.
Me and my cousin reached this sort of flow state during Porij’s set, somehow instantly synchronising our movements not only to the music but also with each other – we just could not stop moving and grooving.
‘You Should Know Me’ came in with a pumping kick drum and I could feel the beat throbbing through my body. I feel like my heartbeat was syncing up to the BPM of each track that they played. Unlike the previous supports, I went into Porij completely blind so of course this change in atmosphere came as a shock to me, but honestly that only added to the overall enjoyment from their set.
After a few more upbeat dance tracks during the interval , ‘Too Drunk To Fuck’ by Dead Kennedys blasted through the speakers as Sports Team took to the stage at 9:15pm. The band started strong with cult classic ‘The Game’, generating this sort of second (or third) wind of the night . New track ‘Palomino’ managed to maintain the adrenaline despite being unknown to the majority of the crowd, before slapping back into familiar excitement with ‘The Drop’.
Speaking of drops, I eventually lost count of the amount of mosh pits by the end of the show. You’d think it was a pre-planned attempt to beat a world record for ‘most most pits in the space of an hour’. Basically any track with a distinct build up was met with a gaping hole followed by this atomic collision of people bouncing in, and ‘The Drop‘ was definitely a fitting song for the first of many to come.
Sports Team then dialled in with the snappy ‘Here It Comes Again’, sandwiched between tracks from Boys These Days, which shockingly were the only two they played from their most recent album. Also at some point around this time, frontman Alex Rice asked us where the best place to go out after the show would be, to which the crowd responded “Glasgow” which really tickled me. Something to expect from a Scottish crowd is that there’s usually going to be someone bantering and heckling, and with a band who don’t always take themselves seriously like Sports Team, it was basically a guarantee.
After some more brief chatter, the iconic intro for ‘Bang Bang Bang’ whistled through, redirecting the crowd back to the music. The song itself translated well live despite having less of a western sound, and I actually don’t think the crowd missed a single ‘bang’ for the whole duration.
Possibly my favourite song by the band, ‘I’m In Love (Subaru)’ danced in and the crowd led by example, jumping and boogieing away to the feel-good anthem. At first I missed those beloved trumpets from the studio version, but the guitars served as a great replacement and I quickly forgot about their absence as I too began to sing and dance along. Who knew a song about a Subaru Impreza would fuel such blissfulness?
Sticking with the theme of cars, the upbeat “ooh’s” of energy-driven single ‘M5’ signalled another moshpit to come. Everyone revved up as Rice twanged through the second verse, then I noticed the familiar face of my cousin crashing and drifting through the crowd for the chorus. The look on his face as he appeared back next to me quickly crushed any curiosity of getting amongst the chaos for myself. As if one mosh pit wasn’t satisfactory, the more climactic buildup preceding the final chorus had everyone right back at it again, only this time it spanned right to the front of the crowd.
There’s something quite charming about Alex Rice’s vocals that scratch an itch for me, which are especially prominent in tracks like ‘Fishing’ and ‘Camel Crew’. There’s a bit of whine and nasal to it, but not in a piercing way. I could also tell that these were some fan favourites as, although the mosh pits weren’t explosive like other tracks, not a single person was still for longer than a second the whole time – either bouncing around or bopping along.
The band then chimed in with their most recent release. Alex introduced this as both ‘Billy’ and ‘Tequila Rosé’. Who is Billy? I don’t know, but what I do know is the opening line of “Fuck you, Billy” hit so much harder with hundreds of people live, saying it like they really meant it. Then that alternative title came into play as Rice snarled “I hate Tequila Rosé” over and over. This might be a bit controversial of me, but I agree with the Tequila Rosé hate
‘Here’s The Thing’ slapped in without hesitation as waves of people bashed about. This one is a lyrical hard-hitter executed in a quite unserious way, which I really loved, especially live with everyone repeating “It’s all just lies, lies, lies, lies”. ‘Kutcher’ flowed nicely into this, with gloopy guitars and catchy, jestful lyrics.
Deep cut ‘Stanton’ closed out the show, which, you guessed it, sparked that final moshpit of the night. I really enjoyed the fact that Sports Team didn’t end their set with their most popular song because it helped me realise just how dedicated the fan base was, as well as proving that the band doesn’t need to save their ‘best ‘till last’ to keep the people around and engaged.
Listen to Sports Team’s newest single ‘Billy’ here
There’s still time to catch the band headlining DIY Alive Festival in London on October 3rd – tickets here.
