When Bastille announced that they would be doing their first ever UK arena tour, the Barclaycard Arena were very happy to announce that the band would be playing there for a night.
Soon enough the night rolled around and it was time for Bastille to take on Birmingham. They were joined by bands Childcare and Rationale. At 6:30pm the doors were opened the fans started flooding in, excited for what tonight would bring.
Childcare came on at 7:15pm, introduced by a man sitting behind a desk which was shown on the four big screens. Many fans might recognise this man from the ‘Fake It’ video that Bastille released earlier this year.
After Childcare, there was a short break before Rationale took to the stage, they had a good half hour set, singing all original songs.
At 8:55pm the man showed on the screen again announcing that there was breaking news coming in five minutes. Then at 9pm the band everyone has been waiting for took to the stage – Bastille.
They started off by singing their latest single ‘Send Them Off!’, before going straight into ‘Laura Palmer’ (a song from their debut album ‘Bad Blood’) and then ‘Snakes’. When the band had finished performing ‘Snakes’, Dan Smith took the opportunity to thank the crowd for coming out and telling them that “this is where it gets crazy because I’m coming to meet all of you”. He jumped off stage and headed into the crowd to sing ‘Flaws’. At the very end of ‘Flaws’ he entered the mixing desk where there was a small stage. He sang a few lines before heading back to the stage through the crowd.
Bastille decided to slow things down as Chris came from behind his drums to wave his flashlight in the air to get the crowd to follow him. Dan joined them all back on stage and started to sing ‘Oblivion’. The band soon picked up the pace as Dan took a second to thank the crowd and then launched into ‘Lethargy’, ‘Things We Lost In The Fire’ and ‘The Draw’.
The band carried on singing a few more songs without a break other than musicians setting up their different instruments. These songs were ‘The Currents’, ‘Power’ and ‘Bad Blood’.
Dan introduced the next song (‘Four Walls (The Ballad of Perry Smith)) by saying that anyone who has been listening to Bastille for a while know that they sing a lot of depressing and sad songs but this song was one of the most depressing they’ve ever done.
Then it was back into uplifting songs as they played ‘Blame’. Dan then went back into the crowd as he tried to get through to the B stage at the mixing desk once again. Once on the little stage, he asked the audience for help during this song. “Incase you haven’t already guessed I’m a terrible dancer so I need you to help me out on this one.” He told everyone that when he said so they had to get down as low as they could and then jump up on his cue. Then the beginning of ‘Of The Night’ played. The crowd listened the Dan and the whole arena was alive and jumping during the chorus.
There was a short wait whilst Dan made his way back through the crowd to the main stage to sing ‘Fake It’ – one of the singles they have previously unveiled before the album was released. Dan took another moment to thank the crowd for being there, and reminisced about the old times when the band played smaller venues in Birmingham. They then started playing ‘Weight of Living’ and ‘Glory’. The crowd could sense it was coming to end but no one really wanted it to.
Dan introduced ‘Good Grief’ by saying “is everyone ready to dance to a song about death?” before the Weird Science quote kicked in. The crowd jumped and sang along to one of the Summer’s most popular songs.
The band left the stage and the man who introduced them started to talk again. He said there was nothing left – like he was saying that this was the end of the show. He started talking about how he could make it up as he went along but slowly starting going crazy until the connection was cut and a spotlight was pointed towards the crowd.
It took a few seconds for everyone to realise that the spotlight was pointing at Dan who was stood in on the balcony on one of the blocks. He stood there to sing ‘Two Evils’. There was another short wait as Dan made it back from the balcony he was stood on to the stage to sing ‘Icarus’. Then as Dan stood behind his keyboard and played the familiar chords of ‘Pompeii’ everyone knew the show was about the end. He started off the song slowly but soon it started the get faster as the original version started and everyone in the arena was on their feet, singing, jumping and dancing along to the iconic song.
Dan said one final thank you before heading off the stage and that was the end to the night.
It was truly a fun experience for everyone in the arena and the band alike. We hope they decide to come back soon!
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