For the last leg of the band’s U.S. fall tour, Bombay Bicycle Club performed at the House of Blues Boston this past weekend. The London-based quartet showcased its versatile sound with a setlist consisting of 19 total tracks.
Kicking off the night with “Overdone” and “It’s Alright Now,” the band started strong—the night had a relatively heavy leaning toward tracks off of its latest album So Long, See You Tomorrow. With little hesitation, Bombay Bicycle Club followed up with “Shuffle”—easily the group’s most well-known track, with over 18 million plays on Spotify. The fact that “Shuffle” appeared so early in the set was a pleasant surprise for the crowd, as was evident by the sudden and deafening roar that filled the packed venue at the start of the song. Almost everyone in the pit put his and her phones away at this point in the night, and opted to sing along and dance.
Just as the audience’s energy reached its peak, Bombay Bicycle Club changed the pace of the night and went back to its early hits with a few acoustic tracks off 2010’s Flaws. This created a much more tranquil atmosphere within the venue, but the level of enthusiasm was upheld and sustained through a communal swaying among the crowd to the rhythmic folk beat of “Ivy and Gold.”
Following this acoustic interlude, the band once more picked things back up with fan favorites such as “Luna” and “Always Like This.” The energy that emanated from the stage was reciprocated by the crowd, and no one seemed to care about anything else besides the performance that was taking place. Quickly following “What If,” however, was a guitar-heavy track off of the band’s debut 2009 album—the band promptly left the stage. This quickly instigated a communal riot among the crowd as many screamed for an encore, as if they didn’t already know that this is a routine stunt pulled at almost every show. As expected, the band took the stage again for one last song, finishing off the phenomenal night with “Carry Me.”
Although the night definitely seemed to lack consistency—going from psychedelic rock to folk, and everything in between—this is the very thing that kept the entire hour and a half performance lively and interesting.
With so much pressure put on musicians by labels to pick a genre and stick with it, Bombay Bicycle Club’s lack of uniformity is a bold characteristic of the band, allowing the quartet to continue growing its fan base without compromising what brought it onto the scene in the first place.
Featured Image by Clare Kim / Heights Staff
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