Two Door Cinema Club’s most recent album Gameshow was a long-awaited, ambitious return from the much fawned-over Bangor indie rockers. Branching off into new territory and embracing trickier material meant that expectations were high for their return to Dublin as Monday's Trinity Summer Series headliner.
Support on the night came from Circa Waves, who enjoy the backing of the burgeoning early crowd. They Liverpool band are relishing the moment, sure, but the lads also can’t quite worm away from the fact that they look and sound distractingly like the band they're their to support.
Luckily for them, the crowd – who are mostly made up of young teenagers – won’t hear anything bad on this night. It’s fair to say that Two Door Cinema Club have, over the years, been cushioned by the fervour their dedicated fanbase, which means that even when their opening songs like ‘Undercover Martyn’ and ‘This Is The Life’ prove to be relatively uninspiring affairs, they still get loud cheers from the front.
The initial act of the evening is more of whimper than a bang, and Alex Trimble’s static, conservative motions on stage make the first few songs feel perfunctory more than anything else.
It’s not until the funky grooves of ‘Bad Decisions’ kick in that Two Door Cinema Club find their rhythm. They may have burnt up half an hour of their setlist, but finally things seem to be falling into place.
As night descends on College Park and the visuals from the 7 screens behind the band get their chance to shine (literally), Trimble and co. cut more inspiring figures. Their silhouetted poses against the pulsating backlights chime well with the band’s own particular niche of electronic indie. They may not be the most charismatic of on-stage performers, but dues must be paid. In particular, Sam Halliday and Kevin Baird deliver strongly on signature 2DCC songs like ‘I Can Talk’ (“Oooh”'s and “Ahh”'s beam from the screens behind us) and catchy new additions like ‘Are We Ready? (Wreck)’.
An hour and a half on stage, the best hits from their three studio albums, and some impressive visuals mean that even if we aren’t bowled over, we’re certainly not left disappointed by the time the encore comes round. Finishing with the band's greatest hit, ‘What You Want’, also means we exit on a high.