By Emma Turner
On Sunday night, Valley performed their first ever gig in Manchester, at Academy 3, taking the stage by storm – which was an absolute pleasure to witness.
Valley are a trio from Canada, made up of vocalist Rob Laska, bassist Alex Dimauro, and drummer Karah James.
They are on their first ever European tour, Water the Flowers, Pray for a Garden; starting on a major high in the UK, with two sold out shows.
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Support act, Beaux, started off the night perfectly, greeted by cheers and applause as he entered the stage with his band, consisting of Tate, Anmol Mohara and Harry Mercer.
After spending the past year working on an album, these shows with Valley are some of Beaux’s first since 2023, so the audience were treated to unreleased tracks from the project.
Beaux’s latest single, Old Home, opens his set—an ideal song to get the audience dancing straight away with its upbeat energy and catchy melody.
Overall, his performance was dreamy and heartfelt, particularly with Edge of St James’.
Beaux’s ability to tell intricate stories through songwriting captivated the whole room.
In between songs, Beaux addresses the bandage on his hand, explaining to the crowd how he accidentally caught himself when making flapjacks, and jokes that it might ‘make [his] guitar playing bad’, instantly evoking laughter from the crowd.
He manages to connect with the audience in a much lighter way with his personality, compared to his emotion-filled songs.
What follows are some unreleased tracks, including It All Rests on Me and Beaux’s upcoming single, Suddenly I’m Fine, which releases on the 31st of January.
Beaux switches to an acoustic guitar for Cut My Hair, also unreleased, about how small changes in life can help you get through it when things are out of your control.
It was clear at this point that the crowd adored his music, with fans shouting his songs as suggestions for him to play, and a unanimous ‘awh’ from everyone when he said he only one more song left.
His presence, combined with the atmosphere in the room, was truly heart-warming. As he began to play his last song, I’ll Be Here When You’re Back, the crowd sang along with him.
Fans eagerly waited and danced along to the pre-show music in preparation for Valley, until the lights finally faded to black, and everyone screamed in anticipation.
A soothing synth, accompanied by the sound of rain, filled the room as the excitement grew:
“Good morning, you are listening to a band called Valley” introduces the members, as they take to the stage and the first notes of ‘Water the Flowers, Pray for a Garden’ are played.
From the get-go, their stage presence was incredible.
Bass Player’s Brother had an impeccable and infectious energy, with lead singer Rob dancing all around the stage, together with bassist Alex.
The biggest smiles reached the audience—candidly reflecting the impact Valley had on everyone in the room.
They maintained such a high passion and vibrancy all night long, from the songs, even down to the lighting.
Throughout their set, a lot of blue and green was used, matching the theme of their latest album ‘Water the Flowers, Pray for a Garden’ which coincides with the whole tour.
A lot of their songs lyrically contrast with their upbeat tempo, and Have a Good Summer (Without Me) is one of them. Rob introduces the song, by saying “I know it’s January, but did anyone have a heartbreak summer?” to which the crowd scream before belting the lyrics with him.
sucks to see you doing better had a similar reception.
It seemed to be a therapeutic experience for everyone to yell out every word, with Rob pointing the microphone towards the audience, allowing each of them to have their own moment.
He spoke about how this song was written whilst he was working a minimum-wage job at Starbucks, and how grateful he was for the fact that he can now sing it all around the world, to sold out audiences—something neither of them thought would be possible.
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Valley shared their experience creating their latest album, citing ‘second album syndrome’, worrying that it wouldn’t exceed the expectations created from their first.
To defeat this anxiety, they changed their writing process, and went to Nashville, locked themselves in the middle of a mountain and only gave themselves a month.
In turn, this brought back their love for their craft, and made it completely authentic to them.
The passion they had was apparent to everyone in the room, and the enthusiasm for Valley to come back to the UK was unmatched.
Karah then joined the front of the stage to talk to everyone before Mosquito, followed by Let It Rain, to slow the pace down, creating a dreamier and more ethereal atmosphere.
Rob and Karah’s voices blended effortlessly on top of a soothing instrumental, as a delicate piano chime mimicked the rain.
Valley then played some of their older hits, including Swim and Closer to The Picture, where lead singer Rob stood on the drum kit, while perfectly strumming his guitar.
He followed this by standing on the barricade a few songs later to get even closer to fans, to sing with them.
Valley exited the stage after playing When You Know Someone, which appeared to be their last song.
However, the crowd were still on a high, and set in motion the chant of “one more song”, to which the band came running back on to perform two more hits: There’s Still a Light in The House and Bop Ba.
Rob got in the middle of the pit for the very last song, teaching everyone the chorus, asking for everyone to give it their all, and they absolutely did.
Fans were then on each other’s shoulders, with their arms in the air for the last time, as everyone beautifully sang as one.
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From start to finish, the show was full of love and admiration – between both Valley and their fans. After waiting what felt like forever for Valley to tour the UK, it was truly worth the wait.
Valley have created a digital ‘garden’ for their audience to plant their memories from the tour and gave out disposable cameras during the show to capture and remember every moment.
You can access the digital garden here.
Photography Copyright 2025 © Emma Turner/ADRENALINE Magazine. All rights reserved.
Tyler Whiting 
Jack Walsh 
Chloe Morris
Loved reading this!