The Herons Have Feelings Too: St Andrews’ Tripartite Show at Sneaky Pete’s

I’d only heard stories of Edinburgh’s famed nocturnal Cowgate before I found myself shadowed by the George IV Bridge. A harmony of roaring aftermarket mufflers, faint yells, and a distinctive smog accompanied me on my walk. The day was spent sunbathing on Calton Hill, so it was with squinting eyes that I felt my way into Sneaky Pete’s dark, obscure hall — my grungy refuge for the evening.

On 29 May, 2026, Sneaky Pete’s hosted three St Andrews student bands on their Edinburgh tour: Sofia Scalia, a second-year solo artist, and Thrush opened for The Herons, the evening’s headliner. From 7:30-10pm, the nearly three-hour symposium traversed genres as multitudinous as the number of bus connections it took to get there.

Set up was still underway as I entered the bar, so I searched for a place to drop my bags; coats and duffels were stuffed underneath the stage and behind the audio technician’s sound deck, a testament to Sneaky Pete’s comfortable intimacy. My subsequent £6 Red Stripe quickly sobered the bartender’s flattery for my looking under 25. Around me, there were more familiar faces than not; it seemed all of St Andrews had, too, migrated south to listen to ‘punk for undergraduates’. It was clear the evening was to be one shared among friends.

Sofia Scalia opened with her short solo act, embodying Laurel Canyon’s finest as she hopped between her guitar and keys. Scalia’s covers broke in the evening with light anthems that warmed the audience’s throats for what was to come later. “One more song!” was the crowd’s constant encore.

Up next came Thrush, a band that, coming into that night, was still unfamiliar to me. Two audience members, donning their homemade “I ♡ THRUSH” crop tops, described their music to me as “post-music… post-noise”. Whatever that means. The stage was hardly appropriate for their seven-person band — among them were pairs of flutes and guitars, a trumpet, lyrics, and drums — though they made do.

Thrush’s 45-minute set featured a number of original songs, among them “Toad girl” and “Horse at the ATM (Amelia Earhart?).” Their unorthodox blend of wind, brass, strings, and percussion displayed an experimentalism seldom seen in student bands. “Multi-instrumentation […] offers an interesting dynamic range throughout the instruments that we wouldn’t be able to tap into otherwise,” explained Thrush. “Each musician works in accordance with the other’s frequencies.”

Though Thrush played six songs that evening, their set was continuous, each melody blending and turning into the next. “We get really, really scared,” said Thrush, who employ this technique — and a “reasonable number of White Claws” — to alleviate their stage fright. “All our songs are in the key of D as well,” they explained.

The crowd was practically hysterical by the time The Herons took the stage. Ben Bagley and Felix Saint-Bris stood up front on guitar and lyrics, with Ilya Husan balancing on drums in the back. The Herons were undoubtedly the most playful act of the evening, opening with their original track, “Squishy Problems”. “The technicians are always slightly taken aback by [this song]”, said Bagley. “The first line is, ‘scratch a vinyl, scratch my balls’.”

The Herons’ setlist included other likewise raunchy lyrics, ranging from love issues — “I’m So Drunk and Lonely” and “I’m In Need of a Love Affair” — to ballads about fatphobic donkey rides — “Donkeys Have Feelings”. There was a pervasive cereal motif across their songs as well, though Bagley maintains that he’s not a fan of porridge.  

Although their songs lasted mere minutes, the frenzy The Herons injected into their mob at Sneaky Pete’s was instantaneous and palpable. Like an orchestra conductor, Saint-Bris directed the audience’s energy in between songs, ordering mosh pits and shepherding fans from one end of the room to the other.

Bagley and Saint-Bris played hot potato that evening, swapping guitars nearly every song. “[Saint-Bris] and I both like playing guitar, so we try [to] split the songs half and half […] it looks a bit amateur, but it adds to the chaos of a Herons set […] it’s now become part of the act,” said Bagley.

Stepping out from Sneaky Pete’s, I was reminded that I was not, in fact, still in St Andrews. The evening felt more akin to a South Street flat party than a night out on the exotic Old Town. Despite featuring nearly exclusively originals, the crowd knew each song by heart, and voices were hoarse by the night’s close. “It’s funny to me that people know the words to a song about my local Indian restaurant […], when a song you write in your bedroom is sung back to you,” said Bagley.

“Getting loose and getting freaky” was the evening’s goal for The Herons, and I can attest to their success — almost enough to book flights for their Paris gig…

Photo by Grace Liang