More about: Bastille

There was an air of celebration in the Camden Roundhouse last night as two fantastic British bands took to the stage for the 8th night of this year’s iTunes Festival.

Headlining the evening was Bastille, who have earned their headline slot after supporting Emeli Sande at the event last year. The quartet has seen their success rocket over the last year with their debut LP going to No.1 in March and even hitting the Top 10 in the US. Offering show-stealing support were indie quartet The 1975 – who were also celebrating their debut self-titled album going straight to No.1 in last night’s charts.

Both acts played a feel-good mixture of old and new hits. The 1975 mainly performed a good deal of material from their lauded debut album, but gave a quick nod to their beginnings and whipped out ‘Head.Cars.Bending’ from their Music For Cars EP that garnered them their early fans. Enthusiasm levels increased immeasurably for The 1975’s released singles like ‘Chocolate’, ‘Sex’ and ‘The City’, during all of which lead singer Matt Healy head-banged, swaggered and fixed his hair in equal measure.

Opening with the epic ‘Bad Blood’, Bastille’s Dan Smith at first sounded a little nervous and his voice seemed to strain slightly, but over the course of their set, he eased into the rhythm of the show and was back on soaring form – vocals fluttering beautifully and banging his drum so aggressively and dramatically I was sure it would break at some point.

Definite highlights of Bastille’s 14-song set were ‘Icarus’, their brilliantly-anthemic ‘Flaws’ (during which those of us at the back completely lost sight of Dan as he walked off stage and out into the crowd to sing) and two brilliant covers; one of ‘What Would You Do’ originally by City High, and Corona’s ‘Rhythm of the Night’ after returning from possibly the shortest pre-encore break in live music history. “I absolutely hate doing that,” Smith admitted after their return. The crowd were certainly more than their fair share of pleased to see the band come back to the stage.

Ending the night on an undeniable high with ‘Pompeii’, Bastille left the audience still chanting the refrain from the epic song; choruses of “Eh, eh oh, eh oh/Eh, eh oh, eh oh.” could still be heard making the rounds after they’d exited the stage.

Set list:

Bad Blood
Things We Lost in the Fire
Overjoyed
The Silence
What Would You Do? (City High cover)
Haunt
Weight of Living, Pt. II
Laura Palmer
These Streets
Oblivion
Icarus
Flaws

Encore:
Of the Night
Pompeii

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More about: Bastille