The sixth night of Bastille’s ‘Bad Blood Tour’ came to Southampton’s Mo’Club this week. The Edge had to opportunity to catch up with the band before the show and talk about their recent chart success and the upcoming festival season. The night kicked off with electro minded indie outfit The Ramona Flowers. Overall they were pretty decent, very sufficient in doing their job of warming up the crowd. Their sound reminded me of the likes of Keane and The Killers, and similarly they too had a brilliant frontman. There new single ‘Lust and Lies’ gained an especially favourable crowd reaction.
Next up were MS MR. Having never heard of the Brooklyn duo I didn’t know what to expect, but I was actually very impressed by their glitch pop sounds. I was absolutely blown away by frontwoman Lizzy Plapinger (and her amazing emerald disco pants). 
Her vocals were reminiscent of an early Florence Welch and their tracks, as a collective, really pack a punch. They played tracks from their latest EP Candy Bar Creep Show including tracks such as ‘Fantasy’ and ‘Hurricane’. The thing that made their set most enjoyable was the insane crowd reaction. At times Lizzy would look across at her musical partner, Max, in utter disbelief. The crowd loved them, I loved them. Definitely one’s to watch out for in 2013.
At around 9:30 the act we’d all been waiting for took to the stage to the sounds of the Twin Peaks theme tune; a little touch that never fails to amuse me. There was never a moment of calm within the crowd at the Mo’Club, screaming girls (and guys for that matter) greeted Kyle, Will, Woody and Dan as they stood behind their instruments. Needing no introduction they opened with ‘Bad Blood’ and started the show as they meant to go on, with copious amounts of energy. Dan Smith’s stage presence is one that warms the heart, no airs and graces, he, like he did at the start of their journey, introduced the band: ‘Hi we’re called Bastille’ in a humble and gracious way. The next track they played I was ecstatic about: ‘The Silence’. It appears on the Extended Cut version of debut album Bad Blood and in the live setting was taken up a notch. It was also amazing to see that I wasn’t the only one who knew the words to these album tracks, which makes a change. Another song from Bad Blood that really impressed me was ‘Weight of Living PtII’. Full of energy as Dan bounded around the (very small) stage the album track went down a treat.
‘Laura Palmer’ sounded amazing live followed by ‘Sleepsong’, which, I’m not going to lie, bought a small tear to my eye. Moving on from that emotional moment they played a track from the Pompeii EP called ‘Poet’. I was SO pleased by this. It’s an amazing song and definitely deserves to be on the set list. The next track is an old live favourite from Other People’s Heartache PtI, a cover of City High’s ‘What Would You Do’. I was stood next to a mum that had clearly been dragged along to the gig by her 16 year old daughter, she absolutely loved it! I caught her singing along to every word and bobbing along to the track. Dan introduced the next song by saying ‘Sorry but this song is really depressing’. It’s a beautiful track (‘Oblvion’) and it had the whole of the Mo’Club captured. Very minimalistic with the main focus on Dan and his piano skills.
To bring the mood back up they stormed straight into a hard-hitting ‘Icarus’ and new 
album track ‘These Streets’. ‘Things We Lost In The Fire’ was next and a personal favourite moment of their previous sets remained: Kyle and Dan taking it in turns to bang the drum at the front of stage making for a great visual performance as well as an audible one. They finished with recent chart storming track ‘Pompeii’ followed by a never-ending chorus of ‘Eh-Oh!’s from the crowd.
The ‘Eh-Oh!’s bought the band back on stage for two more songs beginning with ‘Get Home’ and ending a perfect night with ‘Flaws’. I realise this review is very, very positive, and I’m sure you all expect nothing less from a super-fan like myself. But in all honesty, this gig was one of the best i’ve ever been to, ask anyone who was lucky enough to be there and I’m sure they’ll agree. It was perfect. Bastille seem to have it all, brilliant songs, amazing personalities that shine through and most of all, a dedicated and growing fan base. Watching Bastille’s live show improve over the last year has been an absolute pleasure, here’s to a very bright future!
