Bombay Bicycle Club w/ Royal Canoe - Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (29 Apr 2014) concert review

Setlist Overdone It's Alright Now Shuffle Come To Your Eyes What You Want Evening/Morning How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep Home By Now Feel Lights Out, Words Gone Eyes Off You Whenever, Wherever Luna Always Like This So Long, See You Tomorrow -- Encore -- What If Carry Me Tour Dates May 03 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall May 04 – Montreal, QC @ Corona May 06 – Boston, MA @ Royale (18+) May 07 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer May 08 – New York City, NY @ Webster Hall (18+) May 12 – Chapel Hill, NC @ Cats Cradle May 13 – Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West (18+) May 14 – Nashville, TN @ Exit / In (18+) May 17 – Dallas, TX @ Granada (14+) May 18 – Austin, TX @ Emo’s Austin May 19 – Houston, TX @ Fitzgerald’s Read More Bombay Bicycle Club English indie four-piece means it when they say, “So Long, See You Tomorrow”. London’s Bombay Bicycle Club is back on the road, in support of this latest and fourth album (on Island Records)…

Bombay Bicycle Club and a Shakira reference don’t exactly go together…

..But, the connection will shortly be revealed…

Currently riding high on their recently released 4th full-length, So Long, See You Tomorrow (Vagrant Records), the Crouch End, London band delivered a polished, electric 82 min. performance at the Varsity Theater on a chilly Tuesday night in Minneapolis.

Matt Peters Royal Canoe

Opening the show to a strong crowd reception was Manitoba-based six-piece, Royal Canoe, in support of their debut U.S. release, Today We’re Believers (Roll Call Records). The Canadian ensemble can truly be described as unique and eclectic, with its hybrid of sounds, musical time changes, dual drummers, and singer Matt Peters, who often uses two microphones and manipulates his voice, electronically and otherwise.

Royal Canoe

There is a complexity to their music, such as in the album’s title track or the single, ‘Bathtubs’ that still comes off as easy and palatable to the ear, despite the “everything including the kitchen sink” sound of it all, that is more than a little outside most simplistic pop on mainstream radio. Successfully received at last fall’s Iceland Airwaves, these experimental sound benders are worthy of further attention.

Lights dimmed, and attention was focused on a set of five fabric circular discs above the stage as hand-drawn images similar to Bombay Bicycle Club’s new album’s art, moved across the screens and the six members entered to the sounds of the new album’s opener, ‘Overdone’. The musically tight four-piece was joined on stage by a backing keyboardist/percussionist and vocalist Liz Lawrence, who has replaced the now-solo Lucy Rose.

The bouncy ‘It’s Alright Now’ followed, also the second track on the new album, So Long, See You Tomorrow, that had band leader Jack Steadman (who looks like a cross between Steve Coogan and Alan Cumming) raising his hands in triumph at the end of each verse. A polite, “How are we doing, it’s great to be here” was the only intro to ‘Shuffle’, from previous album, A Different Kind of Fix.

Jamie MacColl Bombay Bicycle Club

The band, Steadman (lead vocals, guitar, piano), Jamie MacColl (guitar), Suren de Saram (drums) and Ed Nash (bass), started out almost ten years ago as more folk/indie pop-based, but has since broadened their sound over the last couple albums to include more world music and electronica influence, due in part to Steadman’s worldly travels to places like India and Turkey.

Ed Nash Bombay Bicycle Club

‘Come To’, another new album cut, slowed the tempo down, but was still anchored by a reverberating electronic throbbing bass beat. ‘Your Eyes’ had the audience clapping along, as a Vampire Weekend-like guitar rhythm drove the track. Bassist Nash was particularly turned up high in the sound mix, swinging his long hair to and fro that you could barely see his face, and moving sometimes like he was playing in a completely different group.

The dichotomy between Steadman’s gentle voice and the driving guitars and deep bass beat, was sometimes jarring, but more than made up for, with the band’s passion on display whilst playing their songs.

BBC Setlist

‘Home By Now’ from the new So Long, See You Tomorrow featured vocalist Lawrence in a delicate performance, offset by the deep bass foundation. ‘Feel’ with its additional percussion and Indian-like melody, picked things up again, with Steadman imploring, “Let’s have a dance party in here”. Steadman then moved to piano and a falsetto for the moving ‘Eyes Off You’ and remained there for ‘Whenever, Wherever’, which he cheekily dedicated to Shakira, as she has a different song of the same name.

The crowd rose up for ‘Always Like This’, an earlier hit from their first album, clapping along as Steadman moved back between guitar and snare drum and cymbal. The moody title track from the new album ended the main set with atmosphere and its accompanying visuals of a man running inside a swirling kaleidoscopic pattern, was dizzying.

Liz Lawrence and Jack Steadman

The two-song encore of ‘What If’ and 'Carry Me' was unexpected in that the band had stripped itself of all its secondary sounds and its two auxiliary members, and the core four-piece just plain turned everything up and rocked harder than at any earlier point, to put an exclamation point on the end.

Clearly embracing the new (every song from the new record was played), Bombay Bicycle Club continues to look ahead, to chart even fresher musical territory. “So long, see you tomorrow”.

Bombay Bicycle Club at Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (29 Apr 2014)

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