McBusted at the 3Arena, Dublin on 24th of April 2015

A fake wedding, fireworks, more costume changes than the Gaiety’s Christmas Pantomime and a giant functional arcade machine…On occasion, it can be physically difficult to put into words what a gig was like. McBusted in the 3Arena on Tuesday night was one of those gigs.

Prior to the sextet taking to stage, there was a series of movie trailers. These were all from older movies like Back To The Future and The Karate Kid. Nostalgia was clearly the theme here, and when McBusted finally decided to grace those in attendance with their appearance, they did so with style. When the curtain fell, there was a giant arcade machine complete with six working buttons and two joysticks as well as a colossal screen. One by one, band members emerged from holes in the floor to arcade music and cute little “player x has entered the game” messages on the screen. Each was met with screams of (mainly) teenage girls, and they kicked into opening song, Air Guitar. Well, you can’t question their enthusiasm…

The showmanship was expectedly excellent, but at times it almost felt like a pantomime. After every few songs, the band would don new costumes, making it more of a show than a concert. Not that the crowd had an issue with that, mind you. After a few of McBusted’s own penned tracks, which were admittedly a bit weak, covers of Busted and McFly songs were everywhere. Thunderbirds Are Go! evoked a raucous response from the crowd as members ran along off the main stage and along the extension that stretched across much of the crowd space.

It almost seems like McBusted don’t realise that they aren’t 20 year olds jumping around anymore, and as such some of the crowd interactions ended up being just downright creepy. After one song, Matt Willis took the role of a preacher and started a series of back and forth responses with the crowd. After getting a few calls of “hell yeah”, “praise the lord” and “Hallelujah” back, he then asked the audience to bounce up and down. This was followed by; “wow, so many bouncy boobies!” This comment was nothing short of unnecessary; especially because much of the crowd was in their early teens. Parents glared towards the stage while many of the comments soared over younger attendees heads.

After a selection of songs, McBusted disappeared. They reappeared moments later on a smaller stage and went into a series of songs including Obviously, Air Hostess and Crashed The Wedding. The latter even featured a mock wedding, where four of the six members donned dresses over their clothes. Again with the panto references…

Riding on My Bike, a McBusted song, was one of the most bizarre experiences of the night. It sounds like it was written by a smitten 15 year old; not 30 year old men. It ended up being moderately unnerving, and if this is how they still pick up women I’d be hugely concerned for them.

A three song encore (after ANOTHER wardrobe change) ended with Year 3000 which is still as contagious as it was when it was first released.  There was copious amounts of confetti, pyrotechnics and even t-shirt cannons throughout the encore, which brought the show out on a high.

McBusted are a band that are highly entertaining in a live setting, if only for the nostalgia factor. The energy they put in to live shows is truly admirable, but it has to be said that they’re getting too old to make the comments that they do. It’s not ‘cheeky’ anymore, it’s just a little bit creepy. That said, McBusted aren’t a band that’ll still be around in coming years so leaving them to it and letting them put on immersive and beguiling live shows is probably the best course of action.