JUST THE FEELING?
Anna Jankowska reviews Bombay Bicycle Club, Limelight 2 November 22 2013
Image: www.stereoboard.com
After their third album, A Different Kind Of Fix in 2011, Bombay Bicycle Club spent long hours in the studio gathering material for their new piece. Here, the Belfast public had a great chance to test the new songs on the Limelight 2 stage; and with support by SOAK—whose beautiful, smooth voice and gentle acoustic guitar softly filled the venue—this was an amazing performance to behold.
Describing the music itself is a difficult task as the group doesn’t abide by the rules of only one genre. With their first of 2008 their style was fresh-sounding and worthy, their videos pushing the boundaries of creative teamwork. Carry me, for example, invites the viewers to interact with the picture on screen, where, with one drag of the mouse, you can animate the band or dancers.
This unusual idea was presented by Camden Studio and directed by S.Thompson, D.Robinson and J.Swidells.
That album, I had the blues but I shook them loose, with songs like Evening/Morning (issued in both vinyl and digital download versions) along with What If were treated with heavy guitar as the lyric says “it’s so hard to find the silent type, someone shy who won’t spread the hype”.
The band’s second record turned to folk, possibly because of Jamie’s MacColl musical heritage; he is a nephew of the late English singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl and the grandson of Ewan. That album breezed into the music world in 2010 with a beautiful acoustic cover, Fairytale Lullaby, originally played by the amazing guitarist John Martyn.
Tonight, though, it was obvious that Jack Steadman (lead vocal, guitar, piano) and his crew were thrilled to get back to live performance and to introduce these fresh songs to the fans. And believe me, there were many, many fans. Tickets were sold out weeks before the concert. A friend of mine travelled all the way to Coleraine, just hours before the gig to get his hands on the precious piece of paper that would allow him to enjoy a night with one of most promising bands on the indie rock stage. A new song Feel is a mixture of Arabic sounds on electric guitar (Jamie MacColl) and super-rhythmical drums (Ed Nash). Some members of the group had travelled around the world in the past few months and it’s interesting to hear such new inspiration in the melody.
It seemed that the crowd was properly getting into the atmosphere after Always like this from the first album but I felt a little bit crushed by the crowd in this too small venue. The stage was tucked away in the corner and even though the sound man did a great job it was extremely hard to watch the band performing: frustrating, especially, for those who had struggled to get tickets . Robert Plant once said that “all the magic of experiencing music can be easily taken away by the wrong settings”. I think he meant recording, but now I know it means the same for listening. When I heard the lyrics “just the feeling, just the feeling” looked around and thought “yeah, I wish it was”. A breakthrough, however, happened after Ivy & Gold blasted from the speakers with an amazing banjo bass that gives this song a special kick—now that was something you won’t hear every day on the Belfast scene.
After the concert I’ve asked Ed Nash how he felt after the performance and he said “I was quite surprised by the size of that place, but when we planned that tour we knew we would get to perform on smaller stages, I enjoyed it”. Well, that’s the main thing; a happy musician equals a happy public. Hopefully Bombay Bicycle Club will be back in Belfast to spread their wings even further after this newest album is released in February.
Describing the music itself is a difficult task as the group doesn’t abide by the rules of only one genre. With their first of 2008 their style was fresh-sounding and worthy, their videos pushing the boundaries of creative teamwork. Carry me, for example, invites the viewers to interact with the picture on screen, where, with one drag of the mouse, you can animate the band or dancers.
This unusual idea was presented by Camden Studio and directed by S.Thompson, D.Robinson and J.Swidells.
That album, I had the blues but I shook them loose, with songs like Evening/Morning (issued in both vinyl and digital download versions) along with What If were treated with heavy guitar as the lyric says “it’s so hard to find the silent type, someone shy who won’t spread the hype”.
The band’s second record turned to folk, possibly because of Jamie’s MacColl musical heritage; he is a nephew of the late English singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl and the grandson of Ewan. That album breezed into the music world in 2010 with a beautiful acoustic cover, Fairytale Lullaby, originally played by the amazing guitarist John Martyn.
Tonight, though, it was obvious that Jack Steadman (lead vocal, guitar, piano) and his crew were thrilled to get back to live performance and to introduce these fresh songs to the fans. And believe me, there were many, many fans. Tickets were sold out weeks before the concert. A friend of mine travelled all the way to Coleraine, just hours before the gig to get his hands on the precious piece of paper that would allow him to enjoy a night with one of most promising bands on the indie rock stage. A new song Feel is a mixture of Arabic sounds on electric guitar (Jamie MacColl) and super-rhythmical drums (Ed Nash). Some members of the group had travelled around the world in the past few months and it’s interesting to hear such new inspiration in the melody.
It seemed that the crowd was properly getting into the atmosphere after Always like this from the first album but I felt a little bit crushed by the crowd in this too small venue. The stage was tucked away in the corner and even though the sound man did a great job it was extremely hard to watch the band performing: frustrating, especially, for those who had struggled to get tickets . Robert Plant once said that “all the magic of experiencing music can be easily taken away by the wrong settings”. I think he meant recording, but now I know it means the same for listening. When I heard the lyrics “just the feeling, just the feeling” looked around and thought “yeah, I wish it was”. A breakthrough, however, happened after Ivy & Gold blasted from the speakers with an amazing banjo bass that gives this song a special kick—now that was something you won’t hear every day on the Belfast scene.
After the concert I’ve asked Ed Nash how he felt after the performance and he said “I was quite surprised by the size of that place, but when we planned that tour we knew we would get to perform on smaller stages, I enjoyed it”. Well, that’s the main thing; a happy musician equals a happy public. Hopefully Bombay Bicycle Club will be back in Belfast to spread their wings even further after this newest album is released in February.