O2 Academy, Glasgow Their indie disco shtick may be thoroughly out of
fashion, but the Northern
Irish band can still work a crowd into a frenzy
Weedy-thin gambolling guitar lines pitched against hi-hat-spanking splashy disco beats – few movements in
music were built on narrower tropes than late-noughties
British indie. To hear Two Door Cinema Club launch into Undercover Martyn, one of their stock-in-trade breakout singles, and watch a sold-out crowd in a sizeable venue go bananas for it, is to appreciate how thoroughly music has changed in the last decade, yet how little many seem to care.
The Northern Irishmen aren’t the only band of their era to survive but, as a live concern at least, still thrive in a way that confounds critical expectation (see too the Wombats, White Lies and others). Maybe it’s a reaction against how outmoded such uncomplicated bands have become in the age of mumble rap and other more vogueish pop. More likely it’s thanks to the work Two Door Cinema Club have put into building a following through relentless touring – a schedule that caused frontman Alex Trimble to have a physical and mental breakdown in 2014. Judging by the still very youthful look of their fanbase, they seem to have left a mark on sticky indie disco dancefloors that won’t be scrubbed away any time soon.