More about: Bombay Bicycle Club

It’s a slightly humid Saturday evening in Bristol and Bombay Bicycle Club are getting ready to take the stage at the O2 Academy. It seems prescient that LCD Soundsystem’s anthem ‘All My Friends’ is the last track played before the band take the stage considering that, for most people in the room, this is their first gig in a post COVID world - and what a gig it was. 

Stepping on stage before breaking into ‘Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing But You)’, you wouldn’t think this was only the band’s second gig in a very long time. Wasting no time in whipping out the bangers, the band follow up with a blistering ‘Is It Real’, a perfect ‘Overdone’, and a quite frankly magical ‘Shuffle’.

The sheer rapturous applause after ‘Shuffle’ cannot even begin to sum up the utter joy in the room but it tries to anyway – it’s such a huge outpouring of love for the band that it’d be more at home after a last minute goal than four songs into a gig. Nonetheless, it’s just one of so many moments where everyone in the room is just so happy to be at an actual gig after the last 18 months and it’s a sheer outpouring of joy and happiness. The band certainly notice, too, with lead singer Jack Steadman loving life saying “we forgot how this feels” before launching into a cover of Selena Gomez’s ‘Lose You To Love Me’. 

The band reel through the likes of ‘Lights Out Words Gone’ (which causes the room to absolutely erupt), ‘Dust On The Ground’, and ‘Luna’ amongst others with so many goofy grins aroujnd the room - including several very visible on stage.

Despite Everything Else Has Gone Wrong releasing back in January 2020, this is one of the first opportunities the band has to play their ‘new’ songs with Steadman quipping “we put out a record before all this that was quite aptly named… it was meant to be an optimistic record” before launching into title track ‘Everything Else Has Gone Wrong’. Finishing the main set with a blistering rendition of ‘Carry Me’, the room demands more which is duly obliged with a truly special performance of ‘Always Like This’ which sees tears of joy in the audience and hoarse throats after so long without live music.

For those going to see the band at Latitude and beyond, they are in for a treat. Bombay Bicycle Club are a special band truly on top form despite, like everyone else, being away for so long. May live music never ever leave us again.  

More about: Bombay Bicycle Club