Metronomy
Two Door Cinema Club
Tribes
Azaelia Banks
By Laura Palmer
Warming up the gaggle tonight with her fiery red shirt and bright hair to match. Foul mouthed Azealia Banks struts around the stage with swag, giving her all, unfortunately in front of a somewhat empty-ish room considering this is a sold out show. Backed on stage by a DJ whom she often glances over to for help to hype the crowd. A neon backdrop consisting of Azealia’s name in lights accompanied by the mark of her home grown roots allows us not to forget who she is or where she’s from. The explicit ‘212’ (Bank’s trademark) gets the crowd pumping. Unfortunately they didn’t stay hyped for long after the somewhat short set abruptly ends.
Tribes are next to take the stage, with a start to their set that should come with a warning for epileptics! Once the furious light show ends we can finally see lead singer Johnny Lloyd styled in trademark hipster apparel. The harsh contrast between the two acts we’ve seen so far is somewhat painful in its vastness. Bringing the vibe of the room down a notch ‘Whenever’ opens up their set, pulling out his acoustic guitar for their fourth song ‘English Field’ changing the pace of their set a little more, its hard to judge the boys performance tonight as being sandwiched between an underground hip-hop starlet and set to lead on to electro act Metronomy, I can’t help but be left with the feeling that their set is abit, dull.
Metronomy, have been around over a decade, but have only recently taken to the mainstream. Playing in with ‘Some Written’ Joseph Mount, lead and creator starts out on the keys, this offering from their latest album ‘The English Riviera’ is a strangely slow choice to start their set and its not till their second song they break in with their coordinated lights show which beams from push lights attached to their chests, this quirky trademark adding an extra edge to their show. By their fourth track ‘Heartbreaker’ the crowd is alive with excitement the lights still pulsate to the beat. There is a heavy bass and space like start to ‘A thing for me’ with spotlights shining down like UFO’s to highlight the vocals. The killer beat, of ‘The End Of You Too’ gets the crowds bouncing to an instrumental track. Following up with their charting track ‘The Look’ which is met with a massive cheer whilst disco ball lights surround the room and ceiling as their set draws to a close. With their eleven-track set and quirkiness aplenty it’s a performance worth a co-headliner slot.
Two Door Cinema Club burst in with ‘Cigarettes in the Theatre’. Redheaded lead Alex Trimble modestly mentions amongst the chaos “You might know this one, so feel free to go nuts” for ‘Something good can work’. ‘Handshake’ then follows one of the new offerings that they will shortly be recording, more of the same catchy energized songwriting we have come to expect from the Irish lads. From something new to something old, – a b-side track (for ‘I can talk’) ‘Costume Party’. It wasn’t so long ago these boys were playing venues like Thekla and only three years back they were only the local support for touring bands in Ireland. But it’s easy to see why they have rocketed though, with the energy still high ‘You’re not stubborn’ leads the boys to encourage “let’s have a dance to this one”. It’s hard to believe after all of the boys’ success they are still only on their first album, after tonight’s showcase of new tracks I shall eagerly await their next offering.