Last week I was lucky enough to get two free tickets through a family friend to see Bastille perform live at the BIC, and what a night it was.
My friend and I arrived pretty late, deciding to skip the supporting acts as we had never heard of them. Narrow-minded I know, but after a long day at uni we both needed the extra time to get ready! At 5’1 inches tall I can easily push through the crowd to get right to the front at gigs ; I like to think of it as one of my talents! Unfortunately my taller friend wasn’t so keen, so we positioned ourselves to the side of the stage, still pretty near the action.
Bastille gave wonderful performances of their well known songs, such as Laura Palmer, Things We Lost In the Fire and Bad Blood. However, I did feel they were slightly let down by the crowd, who were not as energetic as I had imagined they would be. After seeing the band perform in the NME tent at Reading festival last year, where I was crushed to a near death, I was expecting big things from the crowd in Bournemouth.
Then came their newer songs which, fair play to them, were pretty decent. Still, there was an unmistakable awkwardness among the audience as no one really seemed to know the words… or even the tunes for that matter. To rectify this, frontman Dan Smith hopped off the stage and into the crowd, who certainly livened up at the opportunity to touch a z-list celebrity’s hoody. Not that I didn’t join in, of course.
Once the atmosphere improved, the band brought out Angel Haze to join them with their cover of Weapon. Suddenly the whole crowd was finally dancing, much to my delight. They continued to perform for a little while longer, with the newly reformed crowd in toe. The band finishes off the show with their most famous hit, Pompeii, before saying their goodbyes and exiting the stage.
With complete dedication to their music and such a various fan base, I can only predict bigger and better things from the Bastille boys!