Bastille live at The Olympia Theatre

This sets the Londoners vividly apart from others seeking to fill arena rock’s top-table vacuum: their tunes aren’t nearly as “anthemic” as those of, say Kodaline or Fun, yet there’s lots of cleverness underneath the bonnet. You may have heard über-hit ‘Pompeii’ more often that you need, but who can argue with its relentless effectiveness as a pop song?
For their troubles the quartet have been predictably turned into a media bete noir, particularly in the UK, where singer Dan Smith’s spiky hair has become a punchline among journalists. It is quite silly to be fair. With debut album Bad Blood on course to be among the year’s biggest sellers, you doubt that Smith much cares. Certainly their largest Irish headliner yet has the whiff of a victory lap with Smith throwing himself about the stage and assaulting his keyboard with the slightly frenzied air of someone whose wildest dreams have come true.
While there’s only that one LP’s worth of songs to draw on, someone at their label has luckily come up with the idea of an ‘extended edition’ for Christmas. This has yielded several new tracks, all of which sound like mildly engaging variations of either the bubbling, babbling ‘Pompeii’ or glinting ballad ‘Things We Lost In The Fire’, which opens the set. Smith comes across as deeply sombre, both on stage and in interviews, so it’s a surprise to see him camping it up as the final curtain looms, a mash-up of Snap’s ‘Rhythm Is A Dancer’ and Corona’s ‘Rhythm Of The Night’ pointing to a hitherto unhinted at irreverent streak. 
They finish – of course – with ‘Pompeii’, prompting swooning, moshing and shrieks of delight in equal quantities. Bastille, you suspect, are just getting started.