Two Door Cinema Club, Tim &Jean @ Billboard The Venue,Melbourne (03/08/2010)

Thu 5th Aug, 2010 in Gig Reviews

In a small town somewhere in Northern Ireland, hype was well and truly building, spreading throughout Europe and descending onto Australian shores in the form of indie rock pop trio, Two Door Cinema Club. With a strong backing of high calibre pop singles such as I Can Talk, Undercover Martyn and Something Good Can Work, their first Australian visit saw the trio play the renowned Splendour in the Grass as well as a run of side shows on the East Coast. With an early venue change due to overwhelming demand for tickets, these Irish lads brought their debut album, Tourist History and a whole lot of fun to an anticipatory Melbourne crowd.

With Triple J Unearthed winners Tim & Jean in support, the night was kicked off in an excellent and appropriate fashion by the Perth four piece. With a musical endearment beyond their years, 16 year old Jean Capotorto and 18 year old Tim Ayre,played an incredibly solid set which had the crowd jumping around and dancing as if it were a show of their own. By far the song that garnered the best response from the audience was popular single Come Around and by the time they reached the end of their set, a raucous cheer and applause echoed through the venue, leaving many wanting more. After such an impressive set with a sound that is particularly reminiscent of Passion Pit, these Aussie boys demonstrated an incredibly promising sound with many tracks of a high standard. It is increasingly evident that they are a band that many should keep their eye on, particularly with a future release poised for late 2010.

After a brief wait, Two Door Cinema Club ascended the stage with the addition of an extra member in the form of a drummer to further enhance the live experience, they burst straight into album opener Cigarettes In The Theatre. It proved the perfect track to kick off proceedings, sending the majority of the crowd into a crazed mosh and dancing was only further fuelled by the appearance of popular single, Undercover Martyn, a lot earlier in the set than expected. This short and sweet pop song had the crowd in a frenzy and for many, was the highlight of the set. Slowing things down a little with Do You Want It All, the crowd were chanting along to the chorus bringing a smile to the face of front man, Alex Trimble.

Another crowd favourite, single Something Good Can Work gave the crowd yet another reason to jump and dance around, echoing every single word. While this other highlight was followed up with This Is The Life, Trimble and bassist Kevin Baird conversed with the crowd, telling of their enjoyable Splendour experience, as well as expressing a genuine gratitude to all those in the crowd who had supported them in some form or another, even claiming that ‘Splendour was really just a way of getting to do these shows’. Admitting that they had wanted to grace Australian shores for a couple of years, the crowd was treated to an older track Kids, before jumping into You Don’t Know.

Album highlight You’re Not Stubborn was a further crowd favourite, possessing another incredibly catchy chorus which leaves you with no choice but to sing along. Rounding off the set with What You Know and Eat That Up, It’s Good For You, one of the most fascinating aspects of the set was the atmosphere which circulated throughout the venue. Generally a hyped band will instil an atmosphere like this, yet the incredibly tight sounding band and the consistently strong vocals of Trimble proved to the crowd that this band had more to offer than just a meaningless hype. It was a performance which was pitch perfect to that of the album, almost an exact replica in terms of performance accuracy,

Returning to the stage to perform an encore of Come Back Home and single I Can Talk, they once again thanked the crowd, who were clearly appreciative of the high energy set they had performed. The band complimented Australia before announcing that they would be back ‘very very soon’, which was a statement greeted with much excitement and pleasure, fuelling speculation of a possible festival return. Providing an impressive set and a strong performance, Two Door Cinema Club proved that they’re a band that’s in it for the long haul and don’t desire to fade away any time in the near future.

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