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Live Recap: The Goo Goo Dolls with O.A.R. at Northerly Island
While Summer may be winding down, there’s nothing better than an outdoor concert in Chicago (assuming the weather is cooperating). This past Tuesday night, The Goo Goo Dolls and O.A.R performed to a packed house at the Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island—one of the last handful of shows at this venue for the season.
As a teenager in the early aughts, I remember loving O.A.R.’s hit “Love and Memories,” but I went into their show not knowing too much more of their material. While I wasn’t able to sing along to the unfamiliar parts of their setlist, I seemed to be the odd man out, as I saw many of the people around me enthusiastically singing and dancing along to most of the band’s songs. O.A.R’s lineup also included Jerry DePizzo on the saxophone, which added some fun texture to their live sound. Lead vocalist Marc Roberge introduced fan favorite “This Town” as being a “celebration of our travels.” Other fan favorites included “Hey Girl” and “Shattered (Turn the Car Around).”
The Goo Goo Dolls took the stage next, after the sun had set. Their introduction featured a flurry of news reports that appeared on “televisions” on their background screen. The backdrop morphed throughout the night, flickering to different colors and graphics depending on the song—sometimes depicting stars and other times fire.
The setlist kicked off with “Broadway” from the band’s 1998 hit album Dizzy up the Girl, immediately setting the energy on high. We also heard “Slide” and “Black Balloon” from the same album in the early part of the set, which kept up the tone of nostalgia. For the latter of those songs, actual black balloons bounced around throughout the crowd, creating a tangible effect to accompany the song.
Johnny Rzeznik sang the majority of the songs on their 24-song set, but occasionally Rzeznik swapped the lead vocals duty with bassist/vocalist Robby Takac for songs like “Bringing On the Light” and “Life’s a Message.” Throughout the show, the band also introduced some refreshed arrangements on their popular songs; Rzeznik sang their song “Sympathy” sans guitar, accompanied only by the piano and he also sprinkled in some A capella moments during the performance of “Name.” Before playing that song, Rzeznik also introduced it as the first song The Goo Goo Dolls had played on the radio, saying “that’s when all the trouble started.”
Another highlight of the night included a cover of the late, great Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down,” which featured Marc Roberge as a guest performer. The icing on the cake for the evening was the group therapy vibes of singing along the lyrics to “Iris” as the band’s closing song—there’s just something cathartic about screaming “And you bleed just to know you’re alive” along with a crowd full of strangers.
Check out photos of the evening below, and see where you can catch The Goo Goo Dolls next here.
Live Recap: Horsegirl with Lifeguard at Thalia Hall
A fellow photographer told me on August 13 that it was the most crowded he’d ever seen Thalia Hall for an all-ages event. The turnout for Horsegirl and Lifeguard’s final show of their tour was impressive, especially for a Sunday, but it made sense—both bands hail from Chicago, and many of their friends are finishing up summer break from high school or college close to home. The members of Lifeguard would soon be starting fall semester at Jones College Prep, which Horsegirl also attended.
“We love Horsegirl,” guitarist and vocalist Kai Slater said at the start of Lifeguard’s set. “It’s been amazing to tour with our best friends.”
Lifeguard’s opening set at Thalia Hall was high-energy, complete with explosive solos, raging vocals and full-body movement across the stage. The band’s setlist interwove recognizable hits with newer tracks, including several from an EP released just over a month ago. Several songs in, the band invited Horsegirl’s drummer Gigi Reece onstage.
“We’re going to play a Wipers cover, and Gigi’s going to solve a Rubik’s cube before it ends,” Slater addressed the audience. “It’s a minute and a half long. If they don’t finish in time, Horsegirl doesn’t get to play.”
Reece bopped from side to side and tinkered with the Rubik’s cube as Lifeguard surged through “Telepathic Love.” They held up the finished puzzle just as the band finished playing. Lifeguard had Reece stay on stage for the next song, “Fifty Seven,” to play maraca.
After Lifeguard’s set, Slater walked to the front of the stage and bent over to toss a couple sheets of notebook paper into the audience. His setlist fluttered into the audience, where a couple of fans snatched it and read with eager eyes.
Then Horsegirl came on stage to set up.
“I love you, Nora!” A voice shouted from the audience. The guitarist-vocalist smiled and waved.
Horsegirl brought more of a quiet brooding tone than Lifeguard. The band opened with “Bog Bog 1,” a slow and shoegazey instrumental from its 2022 album Versions of Modern Performance. The trio played a number of other hits from the LP, but they also introduced a number of new songs, including a catchy power ballad they penned in recent months. Horsegirl is in the midst of recording its next album, and the group’s set at Thalia Hall reflected more uptempo influences than those for their post-pandemic debut.
Horsegirl brought Lifeguard on stage at the end of their set for a joint encore.
“We came up with this idea yesterday,” bassist/guitarist and vocalist Penelope Lowenstein announced.
The idea was to cover “I Wanna Be Adored,” and It was hard to believe the groups hadn’t been rehearsing their performance for weeks. Nora Cheng’s voice was velvety and full, and the thick layers of guitar and bass reverberated perfectly over spacious drum lines. Concert-goers of all ages left the venue beaming.
See the full photo gallery of the show below, and see where you can catch Horsegirl next here.
Live Recap: Noah Kahan and Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners at The Vic
On the eve of Lollapalooza, I headed to The Vic Theatre to see a Lolla “after” show from Noah Kahan and Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners. Even though some of them take place ahead of the festival, Lolla aftershows are a great chance to catch artists from the festival’s lineup in a much more intimate environment than their fest sets, or even their own tour sets in most cases. Noah Kahan easily could have sold out The Aragon Ballroom or The Salt Shed, but we lucked out seeing him play the smaller Vic Theatre.
Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners warmed up the sold out crowd first with their folk-rock sound that complemented Kahan’s sound very well. The group was also slated to perform at Lolla over the weekend, and the lead singer Mitch Cutts told the crowd this was their first time in Chicago. Cutts also mentioned the band had just moved to Seattle from Montana, which is very fitting because their sounds feels heavily influenced by nature and would make for a great hiking soundtrack. Fan favorites from the 45-minute setlist included “Evergreen,” which has become very popular on Tik Tok and Cutts’ described as being “a large part of the reason we’re here,” as well as “Lake Missoula,” which has a version that features Mt.Joy.
After a quick changeover, it was nearly time for Noah Kahan and his bandmates to take the stage, and the venue was packed to the brim with eager fans. His bandmates entered the stage first, taking their places on stage and beginning to play before Kahan ran onstage himself to a greeting of excited cheers. As the band launched into “All My Love” from Kahan’s 2022 album Stick Season, it sounded as if Kahan had hired a choir with a built-in surround sound system because everyone instantly began to sing along. At every concert there’s usually one or two hits where every single person knows the words, but it’s incredibly special when there’s an artist that has an entire set of sing-along songs. The fact that The Vic reverberated with fans singing Kahan’s lyrics back to him is a testament to his songwriting craft—he can not only do an excellent job at storytelling, but his stories are so compelling that they resonate with so many people.
At his Lollapalooza aftershow, Kahan was just a few days out from having to cancel his appearance at Newport Folk Festival the weekend prior due to being ill and vocal strain, but the energy he put into the show wasn’t indicative of a recent illness at all. He not only sounded incredible, but he ran and jumped around the stage, displaying great camaraderie with his bandmates and reciprocating the energy that the audience was radiating.
Singing along to Kahan’s songs is definitely therapeutic in its own way, but the singer also took some time to tell the audience about his own experience with going to therapy between his songs. Before performing “Growing Sideways,” he talked about his first experiences with therapy, saying he used to lie in therapy to try to convince the people around him and himself that he was feeling better. “It wasn’t until I was in my 20’s—I’m only 26, and I know I look like I’ve been divorced— but I’m 26 years old and when I was 23 I started telling the truth and now I’m happier. I wrote a song about the years I spent lying, and it’s called "‘Growing Sideways’” he added. I think it takes a lot of courage to be honest with yourself about your feelings and therapy, but Kahan has been able to share part of his journey with the world and inspire others to continue to take care of their own mental health, which is even more admirable.
As I mentioned, the remainder of the set continued to be sing-along after sing-along, but there were a few moments, during the performance of “Northern Attitude” for example, where the venue literally shook from everyone clapping and singing along. Other highlights of the set included “Dial Drunk” and “Homesick,” which have been all over Tik Tok in the last year. The main part of the set wrapped with the latter, before Kahan and the band returned to play a 3-song encore that ended with the title track from his last album Stick Season.
If you get the chance to see Noah Kahan on tour this year, don’t miss it. It’s good for the soul.
Check out photos of the Lollapalooza aftershow below, and see where you can catch Noah on tour next here.
Live Recap: Andrew Bird with Nora O'Connor and Uwade at Out of Space
Out of Space Festival continued on Sunday with Andrew Bird, Nora O’Connor and Uwade.
Evanston’s own Nora O’Connor kicked off the evening, describing herself as the “warmy upy girl”—which, to be fair, is in fact what she was doing, but her boundless talent deserves more credit than that! Most of her set featured songs from her latest album, 2022’s My Heart, but she did throw in some songs from further back in her discography like 2004’s “Nightingale.” O’Connor also shared with the crowd that she used to tour around in a van with Andrew Bird, and (spoiler alert) we got to witness a more collaboration between the two later on in the evening.
Singer songwriter Uwade was up next, and it was nice to see her again after I’d first been introduced to her supporting Fleet Foxes at Salt Shed last year. She started her set out solo before eventually being joined by her bassist. Before playing her touching song “The Man Who Sees Tomorrow,” the singer dedicated it to her late father and shared that he used to call himself “the man who sees tomorrow.” Another highlight of Uwade’s set included her cover of “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song” by Fleet Foxes, who she has collaborated with in the past.
Next up, Andrew Bird took the stage for the main event, joined by his bassist and drummer. His set began with an instrumental introduction, which also featured Bird’s signature whistling (I mean, it makes sense if your last name is “Bird” that you’d whistle a lot!) Bird also started on the violin for the first part of his set for songs like “Make a Picture” and “Lone Didion,” but he switched over to playing guitar for other parts of the set.
Before performing a cover of “Harvest” by Neil Young, Bird welcomed Nora O’Connor back to the stage and their vocals meshed incredibly well together. O’Connor leant her vocals to several other songs in the set, including “Lusitania” and fan-favorite “Sisyphus”—which features more melodic whistling. Just before the encore, Bird began to wind down the set with “Armchairs” from the 2007 album Armchair Apocrypha, introducing it by saying, “We’re gonna do a song I haven’t done in quite a while but I thought of it today.” The song transitioned seamlessly into another fan favorite “Pulaski at Night,” which is a hometown anthem for Chicagoans.
See photos from the evening below, and see where you can catch Andrew Bird on tour next here.
Live Recap: Regina Spektor with Allison Russell and Elizabeth Moen at Out of Space
The annual Out of Space festival returned to Canal Shores Golf Course in Evanston, IL and ANCHR attended the third day of the fest with headliner Regina Spektor.
Chicagoan, via Iowa, Elizabeth Moen warmed up the Saturday crowd with a solo set. Moen gave me a little bit of Stevie Nicks vibes. Maybe even Riley Keough as Daisy Jones, who was inspired by Nicks. She dedicated her third song of her set “Songbird” to Allison Russell, who Moen told the crowd inspired her to start writing and performing.
Speaking of Allison Russell, she and her band—or “goddess circle” as she called them, played the second support set. Russell had a very zen, meditative introduction but the pace quickly picked up and Russell got to show off her soulful, powerhouse vocals. Her vocals gave me full body goosebumps, and I was so impressed with the chemistry between her and her bandmates. They truly seemed like they were having the best time on stage, which was infectious and put a smile on my face.
For the main event, Regina Spektor took the stage just as the sun had gone down. The night prior, there had been a torrential downpour, so Regina told the crowd she had an urge from “Jewish grandmothers” to tell the crowd to wear good shoes that day to deal with the mud.
Another joy of the show taking place outdoors was that there were lots of trees. Spektor joked about that as well, saying she’d asked for less reverb during sound check and was told it was “treeverb.” Still, her vocals sounded incredible and the golf course had surprisingly good acoustics to show off her expansive vocal range. Spektor’s vocal talent remained on display for the entirety of the show, but she played her song “Baby Jesus” early on in the show, which highlighted her ability to go from deep, low vocals to quippy falsettos in just one song.
Spektor is obviously known for her spectacular talent as a pianist, but she was able to mix in percussive elements for some of her songs as well. For the song “Better,” she used a drumstick and a chair as makeshift drums. From start to finish, Spektor kept us all completely enthralled, which is quite the feat for a fully solo performance. Towards the end of the show, Spektor followed up her hit “Fidelity” with a dedication to the late Sinéad O’Connor and a performance of “One More Time With Feeling” before wrapping up with the song “Samson.”
See photos of the entire show below, and stay tuned for coverage of Andrew Bird at Out of Space the following night.
Live Recap: Kurt Vile with Finom at Millennium Park
Following a fun, music-packed weekend at Pitchfork Music Festival, I kept the good times rolling with a show from Kurt Vile and Finom at Millennium Park.
The Millennium Park free summer concert series is always a great time to take in the sights of the city and soak in some excellent music. The Chicago based duo Finom (FKA Ohmme), featuring Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart, took the stage first. This was my first time seeing them since the name change, but they sounded as great as ever. Stewart and Cunningham were joined onstage by fellow Chicago musicians V.V. Lightbody and Spencer Tweedy. Cunningham told the crowd that they were working on some new music and previewed it for the crowd that night. In addition to the unreleased material, we also got to hear some Finom familiar favorites like “Icon” and “Water,” which features stunning, harmonized vocalizations that showcase the musical compatibility between Stewart and Cunningham.
Kurt Vile and his bandmates hit the stage after a quick changeover, with the first half of the setlist heavily featuring songs from the 2022 album (watch my moves) like “Palace of OKV in Reverse” and “Hey Like A Child.” After performing a couple of songs, Kurt told the crowd they were beautiful and started singing the throwback “You’re Beautiful” by James Blunt. He also told the crowd he was happy to be there playing the park for a free show, adding “But I feel like I should have done it years before.” The singer introduced another song from his 2022 record “Mount Airy Hill (Way Gone),” saying he was going to take us to his house now.
As we got into the latter part of Kurt Vile’s set, a heartbreaking yet very touching moment happened; a young fan came up to the front with a poster that read “Yesterday Was The Anniversary of My Dad’s Death. You Were His Favorite.” Kurt acknowledged the sign while performing and the audience applauded loudly in support of her. This moment was a great reminder not to take life for granted, and that music can create such a special bond and help with healing from grief. After finishing the set, Kurt even came down from the stage to talk to the girl, and take a photo with her. I hope the concert was a special way for her to honor and celebrate her dad’s memory.
Check out photos from the concert below, and see where you can catch Kurt Vile next here.
Sunday Recap: Pitchfork Music Festival 2023
Pitchfork Fest wrapped up on Sunday, July 23rd, starting with Ariel Zetina and closing with Bon Iver on the Green Stage. We lucked out with the weather on day 3, but read on below for more highlights and the full photo gallery
I arrived to Union Park around 2:00 PM on the third day of Pitchfork Fest to a sleepy, Sunday atmosphere. As Rachika Nayar performed her ambient, experimental music, I saw festival-goers relishing in a lazy kick off—some even dozing off on the field, gently easing into another full day of music.
The gentleness of the music continued with Lucrecia Dalt, another experimental musician, over on the Green stage. Dalt was joined by a percussionist who helped bring her songs to the stage with a multitude of instruments, including bongos and a cowbell. Dalt currently lives in Berlin, but she originally hails from Columbia, so her lyrics are sung in Spanish. Although I didn’t catch the meaning of the words (my high school Spanish is rusty), I still very much appreciated the ambience of her music.
Florist, the project of Emily Sprague and bandmates Rick Spataro, Jonnie Baker, and Felix Walworth, took the Blue stage next. The band continued the mellow vibes as they played their songs like “Red Bird Pt. 2(Morning)” and “Feathers.” As I was watching their set, I noticed a couple of people in the crowd sitting in a meditative pose, and honestly, Florist makes great music to meditate to.
Emily Sprague of Florist
The festival line up seemed to go from zero to sixty next when English duo Jockstrap hit the stage. In stark contrast to the earlier performances, Georgia Ellery and Taylor Skye brought massive energy along with their electro-pop and glitch sounds. Ellery glided around the stage and the crowd danced along with her, as the music was so loud and full of chest-shattering bass. Jockstrap’s show was exactly the surge that the crowd needed to make it past the Pitchfork Fest finish line.
Georgia Ellery of Jockstrap
If Jockstrap’s set was like getting woken up by an alarm clack, then JPEGmafia’s set was like getting a bucket of ice cold water dumped on you when you’re dead asleep (in the best way possible). Every time I’ve seen JPEGmafia, the massive energy that he is able to bring as one performer is matched tenfold by the crowd, making his sets something really special to witness. The crowd welcomed him with the usual “Peggy!” chant, and before the first song was even done, JPEG had jumped onto the speakers to get closer to the audience. Throughout the set, JPEG never remained in one place for too long— he was either zipping around the stage, leaping from speaker to speaker, or running down the center barricade to be face to face with fans. Another highlight of his performance was his cover of Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe.”
JPEGmafia, or “Peggy” as is fans call him, performing
Soul Glo played over on the Blue stage around the same time, and similar to the previous two sets, they really amped up the energy. From the moment the bandmates Pierce Jordan, GG Guerra, and TJ Stevenson took the stage and Jordan started screaming, the first mosh pit I’d seen that weekend commenced. I’d say Soul Glo was definitely the set that surprised me the most this weekend, as I originally expected them to be soulful R&B and was instead smacked in the face with the most hardcore punk band of the festival. Yet again, it was a great way to keep the energy soaring high towards the end of the weekend.
Illuminati Hotties also rocked the Blue Stage a little later that afternoon, performing their cheeky and carefree punk music. Illuminati Hotties is the project of musician, songwriter, and producer Sarah Tudzin, and Tudzin was joined by bandmates Tim Kmet, Sapphire Jewell, Zach Bilson. The bandmates had great chemistry together, which made their show even more entertaining to watch.
Illuminati Hotties
Keeping up with the theme of fun and carefree, Hurray for the Riff Raff performed next on the Blue stage. As you’d expect for a band with “Hurray” in the title, the band’s set felt like a feel-good celebration. Songwriter, musician, and lead vocalist Alynda Segarra and her bandmates all had glitter highlighter on their face in the place of war paint. What’s not to love about glitter war paint?!
I caught a few minutes of Kelela closing out the Red stage for the weekend with her silky vocals and flowing dance moves before jumping over to the Blue stage again for Mdou Moctar. Moctar and his bandmates brought cheerful vibes and facilitated such a community setting as they absolutely shredded on guitar. Moctar often looked out into the audience with so much appreciation, and the audience returned the admiration by clapping in time to the beat or raising their hands together in synchronization.
Mdou Moctar performing
Bon Iver ended the fest on a high note, putting on my favorite set of the weekend. Justin Vernon was joined by a full band, including a backup vocalist, to perform songs from across Bon Iver’s catalog. Vernon’s vocals sounded incredible, and during some of the older songs like “Blood Bank” (my personal favorite), they did some minor change ups on the arrangements, refreshing the song from the recorded version. Unsurprisingly, the crowd favorite was the massive hit “Skinny Love” from 2008’s For Emma, Forever Ago, but we also heard tracks from every Bon Iver era through 2019’s i,i. The musical performance was also complemented by stunning light design.
Check out photos from day three below, and be sure to read coverage of day 1 and day 2 of Pitchfork Fest 2023.
Live Recap: Regina Spektor's Return to London at Royal Festival Hall
It’s around 8PM on Saturday night, July 15th and singer-songwriter Regina Spektor has just taken the stage at the pristine Royal Festival Hall at the Southbank Centre. A seated auditorium sitting just along the River Thames, the venue had a stern air of formality about it, but Spektor quickly lightened up the mood by asking the audience “Can we just pretend we’re at a basement pub and chill the fuck out?”
I wasn’t quite sure what type of energy to expect from the musician playing a solo show (her first show in London in six years), but her opening statement quickly lightened the mood and set up a tone for a relaxed show as she began to play her song “Folding Chair” to follow up her introductory performance of “Shalom Aleichem” (a song centered around the Hebrew greeting meaning "peace be upon you.”)
Early on in the set, Spektor also let the audience know that she’d recently suffered a back injury, but a friend of hers had helped her recover from the injury enough to push on with the shows. Considering she was injured and carrying out these shows with just herself, a microphone and her piano, I figured the show might lean on the shorter side, but Spektor dazzled the audience with a nearly two-hour performance that featured songs from across her long discography.
Spektor’s stage presence was a beautiful balance of a rehearsed performance mixed with the casual nature of friends jamming together—similar to the laidback vibes of a basement pub gig. When she messed up a part of the piano (to be honest, I wouldn’t have even noticed the slip if she hadn’t called it out), Spektor told the crowd “I practiced! The hotel people are probably mad at me [from practicing so much]. We’ll just skip that part!” She also told the audience she was going to try her song “Somedays” even though she wasn’t confident in it, but she managed to play it successfully. Afterwards, Spektor joked that she felt like a “kindergartner with a finger painting.”
While she may have jokingly minimized her craft, Spektor continued to enchant the audience with her sweeping vocal performance and dynamic manner of playing the piano; there were times her vocals were theatrical and times that she’d hammer on the top of the piano or clap to add a percussive element to her melodies. The crowd joined in on the clapping for those moments when makeshift drums were needed.
Speaking of crowd participation, around half way through the show, Spektor told the audience that standing up and squatting made her back feel better, asking everyone, “Will you guys get mad if I do three squats?” She invited the crowd to join her, and myself and the majority of the audience stood up to squat along with the singer. “I think the pub became a gym,” Spektor joked.
To give herself a break from sitting at the piano, Spektor stood up to perform a couple of light-hearted A capella songs “Reginasaurus” and “Silly Eye-Color Generalizations.” Another non-piano moment included a surprise guest appearance from musician and producer Leo Abrahams, who joined Spektor to play a few songs on guitar.
Eventually, Spektor wrapped up the main part of her show with her huge hit “Fidelity,” which she introduced saying “This one I should know in theory, but theory and practice are different.” That may be true, but she knocked the performance of the song out of the park, earning a standing ovation from the entire auditorium at the end of the song.
Spektor returned for a single-song encore of her song “Samson,” also on her 2006 album Begin to Hope.
If you missed out on the show, check out photos from the performance below, and see where you can catch Regina Spektor on tour near you here.
Live Recap: Bastille's Bad Blood X Tour Resurrects Their Landmark Album
“Every day it passes, faster than the last did, and you’ll be old soon, you’ll be old.”- “Weight of Living, Pt. II” by Bastille. These lyrics about the passage of time as you get older rang true for me back in 2013 when Bastille first released their debut album Bad Blood, but they definitely hit even harder when you realize the album is now 10 years old. A decade that felt both fleeting and like a lifetime.
To celebrate this decade landmark of their number one album, Bastille members Dan Smith, Chris “Woody” Wood, Kyle Simmons, and Will Farquarson announced last year that they’d embark on a“Bad Blood X” summer tour around the UK, kicking off Friday, June 30th at Newmarket Racecourses and ending July 23rd at Ludlow Castle. The premise of the tour (you guessed it) being that the band plays their entire debut album in full at these gigs, along with a few other fan favorites from their discography.
As someone who has been a fan of the band for over ten years (fun fact: I saw them perform for the first time on Bastille Day in 2013), the news of the tour conjured up waves of nostalgia and memories of seeing the group perform this album on the original Bad Blood tour(s) in venues ranging from Lincoln Hall in Chicago to Radio City Music Hall in New York. I got the chance to attend their Bad Blood X show in Leeds on July 13th, which was the eve of Bastille Day and the release of the 10 year anniversary edition of the record.
The sold out show took place at Millennium Square in the heart of Leeds, with support from Etta Marcus and Orla Gartland. Singer-songwriter Marcus took the stage first with her 4-piece band to perform a handful of songs, including “Smile” and “Salt Lake City.” The latter got a big cheer and applause from a few fans who had traveled from Salt Lake City to attend the Bastille tour. I’d recommend listening to Etta Marcus if you’re a fan of Faye Webster, Samia, or Julia Jacklin.
Etta Marcus performing
Orla Gartland took the stage next with her drummer and bass player, who were rocking Harry Styles and Taylor Swift t-shirts respectively. Gartland had supported Bastille at two earlier gigs on the tour, and it was clear she’d already gained some new fans in the Bastille community, as I saw several fans singing along to her songs like “Pretending” and “Why Am I Like This?” Gartland introduced the latter saying “This is a song about basically being in your own head” and the song seemed to be a crowd favorite. Towards the end of her set, the singer had everyone in the crowd singing along when she did a medley of different cover songs, including bits of “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” and “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.”
Orla Gartland performing
With the crowd properly warmed up by Marcus and Gartland, the crew got to work setting the stage for the main event. The Bad Blood X stage included street lamps on either end and other bits reminiscent of their OG Bad Blood era, including a hoodie with a wolf on it and Converse shoes that lead singer Dan Smith used to wear during those early days of touring. Just before 8:45PM, the onstage screen flashed an introductory scrawl of “Bad Blood X” in Smith’s handwriting before fading into a montage of video clips from previous tours. While fans eagerly awaited the band to enter the stage, they saw moments ranging from celebrating Woody’s birthday to Will asking the band if they know how to say “goodbye” in Dutch to a younger Dan singing their hit “Pompeii.” The video clip of “Pompeii” transitioned into the band entering the stage and launching into playing the anthemic tune, which felt a little surreal to hear as the first song of the night. I’m pretty sure every time I’ve seen Bastille, they’ve closed with “Pompeii”— but with playing the album in full, fans got to hear it at the start of the set this time.
The show begins…
Next up on both the album and setlist; “Things We Lost in the Fire,” which saw the entire audience clapping in time to the drumbeat of the chorus. After this song, Kyle Simmons addressed the crowd to let them know from time to time they’d be seeing old “embarrassing” videos of their early tour days up on the screen, which were captured by their friend and videographer Tom Middleton. Simmons also mentioned that he and Smith had studied at University of Leeds, which added to the full circle moment and fit the theme of revisiting a part of your past life.
Following the performance of the album’s title track, the audience got another stroll down memory lane with another clip from Middleton’s tour archive. The clip revealed an unglamorous moment of touring; changing a flat tire on the way to a gig. These interludes of past tour footage occurred a few more times throughout the show, but the most beloved seemed to be the video of Farquarson getting a tattoo of the words “Bad Blood” in Texas to commemorate the album going to number one on the charts, which got a loud laugh from the audience.
Will Farquarson of Bastille
The video interludes weren’t the only moments of the Bad Blood portion of the set that nodded to the band’s past. They made sure to bring back many traditions tied to these songs —for example, Woody left his drum set to come to the front of the stage to lead the crowd in swaying their arms during “Overjoyed” and holding up their cell phone lights during “Oblivion.” One tradition that has remained since day one is what has been deemed the “Flaws walk” by fans—which is when Smith hops off the stage during the performance of their first single “Flaws” to walk and dance his way through the audience. The song has remained a staple in their setlist, even on the tour for their fourth album Give Me The Future, so Smith has kept up the Flaws walk for years. On the night of the Leeds show, Smith started on the house right side of the crowd, made his way all the way to the back of the square, and re-entered on the left side. Quite the feat considering the size of the audience and the venue, but Smith has always impressed me with his ability to maneuver through frenzied crowds. Smith also impressed me with his ability to jump up and down while singing just as much as he did in the early days, but I did notice he swapped out his Converse shoes for more sensible New Balances.
Bastille’s performance of their debut album on this tour wasn’t just a redo of their early songs, it was a revival and a chance for them to breathe new life into the music they once performed as novices, now as seasoned performers. While they still had plenty of callbacks to their beginning days in 2013-2014, the 2023 tour also introduced more advanced production aspects and more live band members, including multi-instrumentalist Charlie Barnes (who has been a touring member of Bastille since 2015) and vocalists Bim Amoako and Senab Adekunle.
Another pleasant change with touring Bad Blood 2.0 was the addition of the song “Weight of Living Pt. I” to the setlist. Before playing the song to close out the first part of the set, Smith told the crowd that this track “really dates” the album because it was a hidden bonus track on the record, which isn’t a common feature on records nowadays. Prior to this tour, Bastille had only played Pt. I of “Weight of Living” a handful of times—the first time being in 2017, well after the album’s original tours. The live version of this song sounded incredible with extra vocal support from Bim and Senab.
Kyle Simmons, Dan Smith, and Charlie Barnes of Bastille
The entire band left the stage at this point, returning promptly to perform other fan favorites for part two of their set. A graphic on the screen reading “Beyond Bad Blood” marked the transition into music from other eras. “Good Grief” and “Send Them Off!” from their second album Wild World were both featured during this portion—the latter being fan-voted by a poll on the band’s Instagram Stories the morning of the gig. “The Draw,” which was a song featured on the (super) extended version the debut album called All This Bad Blood, had been played by Bastille on past tours, but this time around fans got to see Smith perform it on guitar, giving it a little extra edginess. We also saw Smith on guitar for the performance of the band’s 2020 single “WHAT YOU GONNA DO???”—but the real star of the show during that song was Barnes, whose showmanship was on full display as he jumped and flipped around the stage.
Smith then addressed the audience to tell them they’d like to “finish with a party” before launching into their hit collaboration with Marshmello “Happier.” Smith stood up onto the barricade rail for this song, balancing on it like a tightrope as he walked from one end to another, at one point holding the microphone out to a fan to sing part of the chorus. The party vibes continued with “Million Pieces” from their album Doom Days, which Smith introduced by saying “This is our attempt at a rave song, but as usual it has to be about the world fucking falling apart.”
Smith walking along the barricade during “Happier”
True to their word, Bastille rounded off the set with pure party vibes by playing “Of The Night” and “Shut Off The Lights.” During their performance of the former (which is a mashup cover of 90’s tunes “Rhythm is a Dancer” and “Rhythm of the Night”) Smith once again recalled a tried and true tradition at their shows by asking everyone to crouch down just before the chorus, then jump up and down with him during the chorus. During the final song of the show, Smith and his bandmates sang “shut off the lights, we don’t need them to dance” and dance we did.
After all the dancing I did at this show, I found myself in McDonald’s afterwards with several other concert attendees getting their post-gig fuel. The best conversation I overheard while waiting for food was a man singing “they put the chips in the fryer fryer fryer” to the tune of “Things We Lost in the Fire.”
A wise band once said “does it almost feel like nothing changed at all?” And with Bad Blood X, the changes are there with the increase in the size of their fan base, the newest live band member additions, the more supportive sneakers, and Smith’s stage demeanor, but the changes signify growth and the joy of living. Here’s to hoping we see the band when they’re older and full of (more) stories to be told for Bad Blood XX.
If you missed out on the shows in the UK, the band will be playing one US show for Bad Blood X in Los Angeles on August 25th. Check out all of their upcoming tour dates here, and see the full gallery of the Leeds show below.
