Bombay Bicycle Club at The Academy | Review

As an ever changing and ever evolving group, Bombay Bicycle Club’s new release due next year should be as ground-breaking as the ones that have come before it. The band have decided to tour this new material around Ireland before its general release; a welcome gesture that all too rarely occurs.

Shuffle, the band’s biggest single, is tonight’s unexpected opener, and BBC waste no time in showing why they are such a quality live act. The sound is so much more alive than on record and the synth effects and especially the drum fills jump out at the listener. The band naturally include several new tracks, of which Overdone is the first. The bassline in this track is brilliant, with Nash’s fingers racing up and down the fret-board at unnerving speeds. On this track, and on the other new ones throughout the night, there are a variety of new influences creeping into the band’s sound. The guitar effects are very strange, and sound almost like steel drums. In fact, you could be mistaken in thinking that the guitar lines were actually synths. There also seems to be a strong samba feel to the beats, and the tunes are noticeably dancier than older material. The indie mentality that tinges all of BBC’s work remains, and this allows the band to explore different styles while still remaining accessible.

The band continually mix things up by playing hits from ‘A Different Kind Of Fix’ in between the new tracks, ensuring that the setlist never loses its energy as we either listen eagerly to the new material, or bask in the familiarity of the old. The set is so consistent throughout, with both new and old tracks thrilling and enthralling in equal measure. Evening/ Morning packs a vicious punch, with the massive bassline giving the crowd reason to rock out, while Sarem pummels ferociously at his drum kit. Carry Me is utterly mind-blowing, encompassing a huge range of emotions. There’s anger in there, some level of anguish, but the tune is also happy and uplifting at the same time. There’s such variety in the instruments too, with a lot of electronics, while still retaining a heavy guitar presence. The acoustic Ivy and Gold offers a more country/ hoedown experience and again the song sounds even better live than the recorded version. The band close with the powerful What If, and the crazy guitar freakout almost overloads our pleasure centres.

You don’t need to go to the O2 or The Olympia and watch some dusty old band churn out hours of their greatest hits to witness a brilliant gig. At just over an hour long, Bombay Bicycle Club don’t let the standard drop for a minute, and the excitement of hearing new songs for the first time, coupled with a reluctance to over-indulge themselves in an unnecessarily long set, make this one of the stand-out gigs of the year.