It’s difficult to know what to make of Bombay Bicycle Club. On one hand they display all the characteristics of another throwaway indie quartet (cutesy name, London roots, boppy mainstream single). On the other they seem determined to sound eclectic, bouncing from moody pop to dance and even straight-up folk. Despite the genre-hopping, local fans have caught the BBC bug, even managing to shift tonight’s gig from the Corner to the larger Forum. Goes to show persistent emailing and calling has more uses than just getting out of parking tickets.
Opening for tonight is Melbourne favourite I, A Man. Despite evoking very little reaction from the crowd, the group puts on a set that arguably outshines their top billing counterparts. There’s a muscular swagger that adds depth to their mid-range grunge, though much of it is lost on the predominantly young audience.
When Bombay Bicycle Club announce, “this is the biggest gig we’ve done outside of the UK”, they mean it. The countless teens in attendance go ape shit when lead singer and guitarist Jack Steadman appears on stage, prompting fears that One Direction have arrived earlier than scheduled. Anything the band plays from thereon is greeted by a reception normally reserved for movie stars and Greek gods.
Admittedly the band starts well. Renditions of ‘How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep’, ‘Your Eyes’ and ‘Dust On The Ground’ stand up against their album counterparts. So too does single ‘Shuffle’ and ‘Already Like This’ – the latter a tune that is indebted to Vampire Weekend. The tracks are also complemented by an epileptic light show that beams up the Forum like seldom seen before.
There’s a problem, however. On albums such as I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose and especially Flaws, there are subtleties and textures that lift Bombay Bicycle Club above the standard indie thrash. These subtleties and textures dissipate in a live setting. They are replaced by repetitive and heavy angular riffs that, although pleasing to their fanbase, do not offer any audible pleasure to the neutral observer.
A solution would’ve been to play a few more numbers off Flaws. This may have helped to explore the band’s breadth of talent. Still, given the folksy nature of these tracks, such an approach would’ve been received poorly by the party-pumping crowd. Bit of a lose-lose, really.
As far as pleasing their fans, Bombay Bicycle Club did their job and then some, playing for well over an hour. Most left happy, some left delighted. Others, however, must have left scratching their heads wondering what’s become of the next wave of British indie.
– Paul Bonadio
