Late last month (25/03/14), I was lucky enough to get a free ticket to the NME Awards Tour at The Institute, Birmingham and even luckier to get an interview with one of the supports - Circa Waves (which will be up soon). I'd been thinking about buying tickets myself a while back but never had enough money to justify a ticket. I'm glad that I did get to go in the end because this was not something to be missed.
First up was Circa Waves, a new Indie Rock band recently signed to Transgressive Records - if you're into bands like Two Door Cinema Club and The Strokes, you should probably give them a listen. Anyway, the downside of being on first is that you have the smallest crowd. They played the kind of set that needs a few thousand people there screaming and getting riled up, it was a complete show and only a couple hundred people were there to witness it. However, by the end of the set, the crowd had grown and the cheers and claps grew louder. All in all, they did what they set out to do because I'm sure that I few people who came there that night not knowing who Circa Waves were, left that place with their name printed in their mind. Job done.
Next up was Royal Blood! Since writing about them here as a "new discovery", I've been waiting for my chance to see them but I definitely did not think it'd be this soon, and also didn't think that it'd be this awesome!! They absolutely slayed the set. Experiencing them live really made me realise just how talented both of them are as musicians, every drum fill was perfect, accompanied by equally perfect gritty and dirty bass riffs - the crowd wasn't sure what to do with themselves. Their singles "Out Of The Black", "Come On Over" and "Little Monster" were immense! The only thing that I can fault the set on is that Michael said half way through "HOW'RE YOU DOING NOTTINGHAM?!"..... no no, this is Birmingham.
It was a huge change when neo-psychedelic Temples stepped on stage next. Having seen them already, I pretty much new what to expect but some people seemed a little taken aback by the sudden change in genre and I feel like this might have calmed down the crowd's hype a little too much. Nonetheless, they played a very together set... everything was so tidy. Perhaps everything was a little too perfect if I'm honest but there's no mistaking that it was a good set. I had a chat with the drummer, bassist and their merch guy afterwards and they are all extremely lovely guys - I wish that people had been able to get more into their set.
Finally was the night's headliners - Interpol! MY. GOODNESS. I mean, I thought that they'd be good but they were phenomenal! Better than I could have ever imagined. I only went into the gig knowing about five of their songs, but they had me dancing and headbanging throughout as if I'd heard all of their songs a billion times. The drummer was ridiculously good, it was actually silly. Everything was so technical but he executed it with near perfection; therefore I'd say I was pretty excited when I caught his drumstick at the end. The guitarist was very entertaining - a complete showman - whipping his hair and smiling at the crowd. This was the polar opposite to the bassist who stood in the back, quietly skilled, just dropping in awesome, technical riffs every now and again.Of course, Paul Banks was the ultimate frontman getting the crowd worked up, particularly some smitten middle-aged women near the front. I definitely feel obligated to acquire their entire discography after that performance! I feel like I'm missing out. Fabulous all round. Just a top quality night!
Overall Rating - 9/10
Here are some pictures from the night...
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