To say it’s been a big year for Two Door Cinema Club is understating the case just a tad. After conquering Ireland, the UK and the US indie scenes with their 2009 debut Travel History, last year’s follow-up Beacon saw the Bangor trio establish themselves as a band who weren’t content to take the easy option of releasing another album of alert, energetic indie pop tracks.
Yet while the songs on their second collection had more depth and reflection, that’s not to say that Alex Trimble and his band mates have gone all maudlin. They may occasionally dabble in wistful grooves, but Two Door Cinema Club don’t really do “sad”.
That’s one reason they’ve filled the O2 with a young, party-ready crowd tonight, eager to dance away their January blues to the trio’s bright-eyed, bushy-tailed tunes.
Trimble is clearly overwhelmed by his band’s biggest headline crowd to date, but he is presumably accustomed to conquering nerves in front of big audiences after his inclusion in last summer’s Olympics opening ceremony. A strident opening brace that includes a euphoric Undercover Martyn brings the crowd to their feet, where they generally remain throughout the 70-minute set for such songs as I Can Talk, Wake Up and This is the Life.
Having burst from the traps so exuberantly, it’s hard to see how such energy levels can be sustained over an hour. Although the comparatively composed Next Year and The World is Watching initiate a slight dip in momentum, by and large, tracks from both Tourist History and Beacon sound sharp, tight and irresistibly effervescent.
If there is a criticism to be made, it is perhaps that Two Door Cinema Club have yet to learn how to work an arena crowd to their full advantage, but that will come as their audiences continue to expand and their mastery of the three-minute pop song becomes even more finely honed.
“I’ll remember this night for the rest of my life,” an elated Trimble says before he leaves the stage. There are certainly worse ways to gauge the dizzying heights of your band’s popularity, that’s for sure.
