Irish indie-rockers Two Door Cinema Club kicked off their extensive UK tour last week in Birmingham. We caught them at one of our favourite venues on Saturday night; the Manchester Apollo.
Stepping out in front of their aesthetically pleasing backdrop of lights that represented the artwork of their latest album ‘Gameshow’, the band kicked the night off with ‘Cigarettes in the Theatre’ from their debut album ‘Tourist History’. The crowd were bouncing before the chorus and there was no reason for them to stop as the band continued their nostalgic opening with the anthemic trio of ‘Undercover Martyn’, ‘Do You Want It All?’ and ‘This Is The Life’.
One thing that was apparent just a few songs in was that Two Door Cinema Club are clearly skilled set list writers. Though they deliver what the crowd wanted to hear, that’s not to say that they safely cling on to their older material, with ‘Gameshow’ tracks ‘Are We Ready (Wreck)’, ‘Fever’, ‘Lavender’, ‘Ordinary’ and ‘Bad Decisions’ receiving that electric a reaction that they could have been sat in the bands set list for years.
EP track ‘Changing of the Seasons’ saw lead singer Alex Trimble ditch his guitar for the first time of the night whilst swaggering across the stage, occasionally sharing a glance of pure disbelief with (and at) the crowd. Any pauses between tracks were filled with gratitude from the band, with bassist Kevin Baird admitting that they weren’t too sure that anybody would care about the current album and tour. After the crowd roaring along to every track, the band surely need no more proof that people care!
Encores can be a bit tedious and very predictable, so it was refreshing to see Two Door Cinema Club take a different approach to theirs by reintroducing Laura Hayden to the stage. We saw Laura just a few hours earlier as the vocalist of the first support act, The Anteros. Alex and Laura shared the vocals of ‘The World Is Watching’ from the bands second album ‘Beacon’, a slow-paced track that’s rarely been played since 2012/13. The riff driven ‘Someday’ followed before the more than worthy closing track ‘What You Know’.
For me, the disco-funk nature of ‘Bad Decisions’ in particular highlighted the gamble that the band took in the search of a more mature and experiential sound for ‘Gameshow’. The gamble was definitely worthwhile as it’s seen them evolve into a stronger and more confident group without losing the enthusiasm and vibrancy that runs through their older material. This enthusiasm and vibrancy oozes through their sets and led to a triumphant night at a sold out Manchester Apollo.
