poppedmusic

Bombay Bicycle Club

O2 Academy Liverpool, 15th March 2014

Photo by Sakura

I’d already seen this band play live twice this year and a sneaky bit of a soundcheck too boot so I knew when I walked in that I was going to be watching one of the best live bands around. My only worry was that it was all a dream and they weren’t as good as I thought. I need not have worried though this band are just on top of their game.

The set list was very new album heavy, which is to be expected; they played every song from it. Often I’ve been to shows where bands have done this and you knew when they were playing the new stuff. Here though, no such thing. Every song (bar one, we’ll get to that later) held the audience captive. They dance, they clapped they yelled and cheered.

There were also some live favourites thrown in for good measure too. The place just exploded for Shuffle, Your Eyes, and How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep showing that A Different Kind Of Fix is clearly another  favourite album to pull songs from for the live set, not just for me but for many. It’s great that the band already have so many songs that can work so beautifully together. I will always miss the tender folk efforts though from Flaws but for shows like this I don’t mind so much. There were some slower moments during the set with the band pulling out the stops to try and bring the place to it’s knees with Eyes Off Of You. Unfortunately bringing the venue to its knees isn’t quite what happened and the crowd who clearly wanted to party were having none of it. I could hear loud chitter chatter and was pushed out the way as people made their way to the bar in droves. Such a shame as it’s a beautiful track, I guess when your crowd want to party.. they want to party.

Photo by Sakura

When they brought out Evening/Morning from their debut album I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose I danced as if my life depended on it and so did everyone else around me. It’s often very clear when you’re surrounded by true fans; they all know something old and they all know something new and most of the bits in between. Liverpool loves Bombay Bicycle Club, I am in no doubt about that.

So Long, See You Tomorrow has propelled this band into the world of Sold Out albums and Sold Out tours and it’s so richly deserved. It’s been fascinating watching the band twist and turn tapping into everything from folk to snake charming. It wasn’t just the band that made this show, the lighting guys and whoever did the screen deigns did such a good job I didn’t know where to look. They saved the best until last with that though, I was in awe with the illustrations that danced across the screens while final song Carry Me was played out. I just hope that I get to see  all of it again and again and again. And again.