Live Review

Two Door Cinema Club – The Deaf Institute, Manchester

• 25th Mar 2010

The Deaf Institute is fast becoming my favourite music venue, with its edgy décor and quirky range of drinks, AND their knack for putting on bands just before they hit it big. Tonight was no exception, with Two Door Cinema Club about to take over the world. The only problem…the size of the venue with the number of people they tried to cram inside it!

Luckily during Shanty Town, the local support, it wasn’t as busy, and their Manchester Twisted-wheel-esque sound was enjoyable, but nothing out of the ordinary. Citadels who have been with TDCC most of the tour were more exciting and exuding more energy!

After an age of sound-checking and even more people showing up to what’s sure to be TDCC’s smallest gig for a very long time to come, they finally took to the stage. Complete with live session drummer they opened with the catchiest of songs ‘Cigarettes in the Theatre’ and just oozed a certain amount of cool. Now we’re not talking Hoxton hero, too cool for school, but more chilled out talented and enjoying themselves. The crowd could have started better as they were as static as lampposts; it was impressive that TDCC managed to keep any atmosphere going at all. It was the last day of their UK tour and eventually the crowd got going and the enthusiasm was reciprocated by the Northern Irish lads.

The sound they produced was something special, the album is a great piece of post-production mastering and it could have gone either way live. Spectacularly, they managed to recreate the greatness, just slightly less polished than the record and it worked really well. A layered sound with the track underneath worked really well with the added drums and great multi-tasking of the band with the guitars, bass, keyboard and synth. The guitarist was amazing and it’s not often that I’d notice that, but it’s also not often a guitarist is more important than a front man.
The front man himself did a pretty good job too, but when singing, Alex Trimble, sounded more like he was from Shoreditch than Ireland.

They gave themselves an encore and finished with ‘I Can Talk’, another screamer of a track from their new album and the atmosphere now so built and intense that the only way to describe it was epic!

TDCC gave an outstanding performance with spangly guitars, heavy bass and they really gave that summer feeling…just like Friendly Fires.

And just like Friendly Fires this is just the small beginnings of Two Door Cinema Club.