Contributed by Lucky Intern LingJie Tuang
All Images Credited to All Is Amazing for Tiger Upfront
For casual and serious music junkies alike, British trio The xx carries a different weight for each different demographic. There’s the 10-hour loop of ‘Intro’ on YouTube, which has its own legacy for appearing in every motivational speech or ‘deep concentration’ Spotify playlist, or ‘Angels’, which has appeared on every Tumblr blog in 2012. On the 25th of January, listeners from both extremes, and those in between came together for a one-night-only gig by The xx. A couple of the boys from PMC got the opportunity to experience the best of British alternative music. 
The xx naturally kicked off the event by their signature ‘Intro’, as the stage alternated between flashes of black and white, a fantastic opener to get the crowd hyped up — not safe for the epileptic though! Being the I See You tour, their entire setlist was heavy on that album, with sprinkles of tracks from their self-titled album and a few from ‘Coexist’.
Although most of Romy, Oliver and Jamie’s discography generally dabble with moody, dark electronica music, their live sets were anything but depressing. Their blacked out stage was offset by the fantastic stage lighting — washes of technicolour that shifted to the mood of every different performance.
Some highlights of the night included Say Something Loving, I Dare You and Dangerous. These were some of the tracks that really got the crowd moving, and that says a lot about our ‘shy shy’ demographic that does light head bops to the beat while having their arms crossed. 
The xx’s I See You tour is a great example of showing, not telling — there weren’t plenty of panting talk sets where they mused about local delights and the humid weather, but only spoke during times of expressing gratitude and reminding their fans to leave everything painful behind, for an evening of letting loose and enjoying the music.
The trio’s music and brand may be minimal and clean, but their live set was overall triumphant, sincere and energetic. The trio closed out the gig with Angels — just enough to soothe the remnants of my unresolved teenage angst, in a post-Tumblr era.
