It was a young and jubilant crowd that packed out Festival Hall to see The Jungle Giants, The Vaccines and good ol’ Celtic headliners Two Door Cinema Club. The latter haven’t been in Australia since their 2011 appearance at Laneway, but there was no love lost between them and the frothing audience. The band played tracks from inaugural release Tourist History, as well as more au courant tunes from second album Beacon (released late last year). In fact, they opened with lead single Sleep Alone which chugged off a rollicking setlist that barely slowed, except for The World Is Watching about three quarters of the way through. Still, there was absolutely no mawkishness – the moment you felt that sentimentality was creeping in, the three-piece would thrash out another good-timer. The 80-minute set was accompanied by a pretty cool triangular light show and a burst of white balloons at the end, kind of like the opposite of those carbon awareness ads from yesteryear.
Rhythm guitarist Alex Trimble looked absolutely boggle-eyed at the reception from the Hall, and although there was little stage banter, he did take the opportunity to say it was too long since Two Door had been in Melbourne. I think everyone agreed – I didn’t ask, because I was aware there were many starry eyes looking in opposite directions, chameleon style, and I don’t think their owners would have heard me above the rush of blood in their ears. And quite possibly down to their loins.
ZOË RADAS
LOVED: Band and audience properly psyching on one another’s enthusiasm.
HATED: The bar there. Too hard to get to.
DRANK: Beer.
