Live Review: Bombay Bicycle Club, City Calm Down, East

Youngster East started things off with an impressive set that proved why she’s on a lot of music radars at the moment. Her confident and effortless performance provided the right starting point for the night.

City Calm Down did a good job occupying the swelling, excited crowd with a set governed by heavy synths, predominant bass lines and strong vocals. Influenced heavily by ‘80s new wave music and the current electronic scene these guys were like the attractive love child of New Order and Van She.

Finally Bombay Bicycle Club emerged to face their enthusiastic audience, with lead singer Jack Steadman immediately starting a robust rendition of Overdone, complete with flashing strobe lights to really pump up the crowd.

Touring as a six-member strong band, with the addition of a keys/synth player and the backing vocals of Liz Lawrence, brought that extra something to their show with songs like It’s Alright Now and Shuffle really hitting the mark live.

The surprise highlight of the night was BBC’s cover of Robyn and Kleerup’s With Every Heartbeat, helmed by Lawrence. If there’s one suggestion to be made it’s to try to involve Lawrence on a more permanent basis. Her husky, dreamy voice provided the perfect balance to Steadman’s throughout the night and on tracks like Luna really made the song.

The catchy Always Like This appeared to be a crowd favourite, as was encore finisher, Carry Me. A lively track with a compulsive beat and a bucket-full of synths, Carry Me had the crowd stomping and joyously singing along in a euphoric climax to the night.

BBC managed to keep the energy within the room at a super high level all night and appeared to be having as much fun as their dedicated audience. This was a really fun show, and BBC were on point for it all.