Review of Two Door Cinema Club at The Olympia Theatre on March 19th 2011
Review by Conor Skinnader
Photos by Sean Smyth
I’m not sure what I really expected going to see this live performance by Two Door Cinema Club or TDCC as they’ve become commonly referred to. I mean their albums short. Really short. Kind of like a Z list celebrities skirt when they’re on a night out, or Tom Cruise with no shoes on. We’re talking ten songs lasting about three minutes each. That’s about the same amount of time it takes me to cook my dinner most evenings or watch an episode of a TV show. So the question was – would everyone leave with the sense of feeling short changed, when getting a pint at the gig inevitably meant missing a significant portion of the main event?
We got in just as Miracle Bell were finishing, so unfortunately I can’t comment on their performance, but we were shocked by how many kids (teenagers) were there. I have absolutely no problem with people of all ages enjoying their music, but the fact that so many young people were there meant we had to stay in the bar while we were having a drink (boohoo). Had it not been for this we could have caught the end of Miracle Bell. When we did leave the bar after having a pint we were treated to the strangest sight of the night. The Olympia dance floor was rammed and someone had decided to play some early naughties dance hits – to which the crowd were going absolutely mental. I always thought the idea was to warm the crowd up before the main event, but I couldn’t actually see how Two Door Cinema Club were going to follow this up, as despite the frenetic nature of their music, it’s a good deal slower than what was pounding out from the speakers.
Preceded by (I think), Kernkraft 400 by Zombie Nation and Sandstorm by Darude, TDCC arrived on stage with a barrage of lights that may or may not have been borrowed from one of U2’s stadium tours. This was probably meant to blend with their rapid fire tracks and hype up the crowd even more. What it did instead, was highlight a lack of stage presence overall on the night and that was only when you could actually see them (which wasn’t very often unless you’d borrowed a Chilean coal miner’s Ray Ban’s).
All of their hits went down well, with them playing Come Back Home and I Can Talk for their encore. They were actually encouraged
to come out and play more after this, which was strange as I’m pretty sure they’d already played all their material (more teenage enthusiasm?). During the middle of their set the band told us they were going to play a new track. Despite taking a slightly different direction with the new song, the crowd’s reaction was only slightly more muted than it was to the rest of their music on the night. It seemed to have elements of the sounds of both Bell X1 and White Lies in it, settling somewhere in between and bodes well for their next album.
From reading this review you may get the impression that I’m not a fan of Two Door Cinema Club, but I did really enjoy Tourist History when it was first released. However I grew tired of it quite quickly. I completely understand their appeal to what has become quite a huge fan base for them, having sold out the Olympia twice at the weekend. I hadn’t seen them in concert before and wanted to see if my initial enthusiasm for Tourist History could be reinvigorated with a live performance. I can only say that in some aspects it was and in others it wasn’t. Their music is great for jumping around to, but you can’t help but feel that someone could just put their album on and hit shuffle, and no one would be any wiser. They were good, but not great and for me the highlight of the night was the crowd’s reaction to the early noughties dance music which was quite a sight to take in. TDCC never really got the crowd going to the same levels as this and the light show was irritating to the point where you could barely look at the stage (This may not have been the case further from the back). It’s been a big year for them, which has involved a lot of touring in many different countries, including the U.S., so they may be running out of steam. They may also have to be wiser with their pre-show music selection next time, especially if they’re just going to go through the motions.
Did everyone feel short changed? The consensus was that they were good but rather forgettable. It wasn’t a gig you’d be shouting about to your mates unless of course you’re a die hard fan. It’s those fans who’ll arrive knowing exactly what to expect, and leave feeling like they’ve enjoyed much more than just 30 minutes of micro-tracks.
Skinn gives this 4 skins out of 7
