


They have become a band that can go around putting up sold out posters in pavilions, while playing on a Saturday night in the clubs of those same cities. There’s the odd respite, like the heady groove of ‘Lavender’, but the rest of the night consists of wall-to-wall mania, ‘Sun’ concluding a glorious night celebrating one of these shores’ most beloved groups.A lot has changed since Alex, Sam and Kevin, three teenagers from Northern Ireland who shared the same passion for music, started stumbling around as a band looking for exposure on MySpace, like many other early bands in the 2000’s. Now, those three buddies are Two Door Cinema Club. Even with non-album tracks like ‘Changing Of the Seasons’ in the set, it’s far from self-indulgent they’re just giving the people what they want. “Thanks for coming down”, says Alex with a smile, as if a thousand cap Two Door gig wouldn’t sell out in seconds. Fifteen minutes in, they’ve already ticked off ‘I Can Talk’ and ‘What You Know’. The first chord of ‘Undercover Martyn’ has the place in a frenzy. Instead, Alex, Kevin, and Sam breeze through a set of classics more akin to a Two Door-themed club night than a live gig. The band’s outfits - suits in primary colours that match the red stage furniture - are the only other hint that there’s even a new ‘era’ coming at all. ‘Talk’ gets its first outing, joining the ranks as an instant classic if the number of shoulder-surfers is anything to go by, but surprisingly no more new material is aired all night. Tonight there are no lasers, streamers or fireworks, just four guys, their instruments, and a back catalogue most bands would kill for. Wrapping up that day at Community, Two Door had a stage production to match the huge audience they’ve built over a decade of making great records. Cuts from their upcoming LP ‘What’s It Like Over There?’ get the same treatment as the quick-fire classics ‘Fossils’ and ‘Fire That Burns’ - that is to say, mosh pit after mosh pit, reaching an inevitable electrifying apex for ‘T-Shirt Weather’.

This could be a headline show for all they care, such is the tangible excitement that only increases through the set. The room is bursting and hazy with sweat by the time Circa Waves plunge into ‘Wake Up’. ‘Drive On’ churns with a relentless joy, the kind of song that deserves to be played in sun-baked festival fields, and ‘Breakfast’ gets swallowed up by the baying masses. Just down the road and nine months later, the setting for tonight’s intimate comeback performance is Oval Space, packed to the rafters and with some familiar faces in tow, as part of Annie Mac’s AMP London event at venues across the capital.įresh from the release of glamorous debut ‘When We Land’, Anteros radiate enthusiasm. Last summer Two Door Cinema Club closed the lid on ‘Gameshow’, their woozy, disco-slanted third album, in a massive blow out at London’s Community Festival in Finsbury Park.
