Bombay Bicycle Club // UEA - 09.03.14
If you ignore the faux fervour, the frequent live line-up changes and the nagging feeling that many songs sounded uncannily similar, Bombay Bicycle Club put on a hell of a show that had me utterly enthralled for the best part of an hour.
“Oi, you’re tall so you shouldn’t be standing here. You should be further back.” “My friends were here first, you can’t push to the front.”
“Let’s take a between song selfie!”
In the blissful years since my graduation, I’d managed to forget/repress the reality of what it’s like going to a gig on a University campus. Especially when the gig in question is such a high profile booking as Bombay Bicycle Club, which unsurprisingly sold out months in advance. Still, I grit my teeth against the sea of naivety and hormones, determined to give the band a fair review. After all, it’s not their fault.
Musically, the North London four-piece didn’t fail to impress. Their songs meandered beautifully from crooning laments to knee jerking dance anthems with an occasional side step into Afro/Indian influenced territory. However, they did fall into a trap which countless popular “indie” bands are losing themselves to. I’ve mentioned it before in regards to The 1975 and I think it’s valid in this respect also, the thin veil of the epic sheen. Many songs would build to a gigantic climax, with a throng of intoxicated teenagers screaming lyrics back to frontman Jack Steadman in an almost religious, “lift your hands to the sky” moment. The only thing is that, as far as I could make out, it didn’t actually mean anything. Now, I far from think that lyrics have to have some kind of deep emotional root, but used in this context there should at least be some form of meaningful content. All the ones I could hear were more emotional buzz words put to a melody with lots of long, easy to remember vowels than anything actually poignant.
Still, if you ignore the faux fervour, the frequent live line-up changes (they varied between 4, 5, 6 and 9 members) and the nagging feeling that many songs sounded uncannily similar, Bombay Bicycle Club put on a hell of a show that had me utterly enthralled for the best part of an hour. It’s not ground breaking, it’s not cutting edge and it’s nothing we’ve not heard a millions times before. But that’s not what we’re after with BBC. It’s modern British indie, and it’s ours.
Now can someone please teach students the appropriate place for a mosh pit?!
