Ascending from Nashville, Tennessee, In Color have massively grown their fanbase, this is proven by their first ever sold-out headline show in London, Dublin Castle. The room is already sweating before The Dublin Castle even properly fills. Bright, colourful lights hang over the stage, pints crowd every ledge, and somewhere between the sticky floors and rattling speakers, In Color walk out looking like they’ve been here a hundred times before. By the end of the night, it feels like they could headline somewhere three times the size.
London has always had a soft spot for bands that blur emotional honesty with big, synthetic hooks, and In Color sit comfortably in that lineage. Their alt-pop sounds pull from indie rock, dream-pop and glossy electronic textures without becoming overproduced or distant. Live, though, the songs hit harder than they do on record. There’s more urgency in the guitars, more bite in the drums, and a rawness that gives their polishes choruses some genuine weight.
Camden is the perfect setting for a band like this. The Dublin Castle carries decades of indie mythology without feeling trapped by it. You can still sense the ghosts of Britpop and post-punk bands in the walls, but tonight’s crowd is younger, sharper, and for less interest in nostalgia. In Color understand that balance too. Their music nods towards the atmospheric melancholy of late-night indie while staying firmly rooted in modern alt-pop.
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They open with a slow-burning track that gradually expands into a wall of shimmering synths and crashing percussion. It’s on intelligent choice and restrained enough to pull the room in before the bigger hooks arrive later in that set. Frontperson energy matters in venues this size, and Matt Hastings, the lead singer of In Color commands the crowd without overplaying it. There’s no forced rockstar routine, no rehearsed speeches, just an easy confidence that feels authentic. Between songs, they joke about the heat in the room and being genuine communicating with the fans in the crowd in Camden on a Tuesday evening, grounding the set in something human and immediate.
What stands out most is how dynamic the band sound live, they feed off each other’s energy, having fun, and expressing themselves through their performance. Too many alt-pop acts lean heavily on backing tracks, flattening the energy of their own songs. In Color avoid that trap entirely. The electronics enhance rather than dominate. Guitars swell unexpectedly into tracks that initially seem delicate, and the rhythm section adds real physical momentum to songs built on emotional vulnerability.
The biggest moment of the night arrives with the set ending with “Headlights,” the band’s breakout single that has now passed 14 million streams. The reaction is instant. The opening notes barely cut through the speakers before the room erupts, with fans pushing toward the front and shouting every lyric back at the stage. In a venue as intimate as Dublin Castle, the sound of the audience almost overpowers the band themselves. It’s a kind of response every emerging act hopes for, that sudden shift where a song no longer belongs solely to the band because the crowd has claimed it too. Live, “Headlights” feels bigger, rougher and far more emotional than its streaming numbers suggest, transforming from polished alt-pop into something genuinely euphoric.
The band also use the set to tease a handful of unreleased tracks, and those moments may end up being just as memorable as the crowd favourites. The newer material leans into slow synth textures and bigger choruses while keeping the emotional immediacy that defines their sound. Even though fans were unexpected with unreleased tracks, the response was strong, suggesting In Color are evolving rather than simply repeating what has already worked for them. If these songs are a sign of what comes next, you do not want to miss out on where In Color are heading in the future.
The crowd reaction across the rest of the set says everything. This isn’t passive appreciation from industry people standing at the back with folded arms. Fans know the words already. The lean into each chorus like they need it. Even newcomers seem won over quickly, particularly during the final stretch of the set where the band stack their strongest material back-to-back. By the encore chants, surprisingly loud for a venue this intimate, the atmosphere feels closer to a breakthrough moment than a standard Camden gig.
There are still moments where the band feel caught between identities. Occasionally the production sheen of the songs softens the emotional impact, and one or two quieter numbers drift slightly in the middle of the set. But even those moments reveal ambition rather than hesitation. In Color are clearly aiming beyond straightforward indie formulas, experimenting with texture and pacing in ways that make them more interesting than many of their contemporaries.
Most importantly, they understand the emotional core of alt-pop: making vulnerability feel enormous. In a venue as tightly packed as the Dublin Castle, that intimacy become impossible to fake. Every lyric land closer. Every synth pules vibrates through the floorboards. Every chorus and emotion feels shared.
By the time the band leave the stage, Camden’s night air feels strangely cold after the heat inside. In Color may still be climbing toward wider recognition but shows like this suggest they are moving quickly. London love bands that make small rooms feel significant. On this evidence, In Color are learning exactly how to do that.
