Live Report: Bastille At The Olympia Theatre

Bastille finally made it to the Olympia Theatre tonight after having to reschedule their initial date due to bad weather. The British band, fronted by vocalist Dan Smith, gave it their all at the final stop of their Still Avoiding Tomorrow Tour.

Bastille kicked off their show with a cover of Cat Stevens’ ‘Wild World’ as the band members’ shadows were projected through a foggy haze onto a sheer curtain partially concealing the stage. The dreamlike setting proved fitting as the band launched into their Dooms Days hit ‘Quarter Past Midnight’, an ode to a night out on the city.

‘Send Them Off!’ brought out Smith’s ability to energetically work the stage. “Thank you everyone for having us at this beautiful venue,” said Smith before the band performed their collaboration with Craig David, ‘I Know You’. They followed this with ‘Things We Lost In Their Fire’, a single from their breakout debut album Bad Blood.

“We never really thought we’d be writing a song about some middle-aged dudes,” said Smith as he introduced ‘The Currents’, noting the influence of the current political climate and the Brexit situation. “Then obviously the Trump thing happened which made as a little less embarrassing.”

After ‘The Currents’, Bastille played ‘Grip’, ‘Warmth’ and ‘Blame’. Smith’s conviction was consistently present in his vocals and his band members didn’t miss a beat during these tunes.

The band shifted the tone for something decidedly more lowkey than the previous songs with renditions of ‘4AM’ and ‘World Gone Mad’, while Smith slumped onto a shabby couch with ‘doom days’ spray painted across the back. The sold-out audience waved their phone flashlights back and forth as Smith sang “So this is where we are / It’s not where we wanted to be / If half the world’s gone mad / The other half just don’t care, you see.”

Band members gathered around Smith on the couch as he sang ‘Two Evils’ and effectively demonstrated his vocal range, hitting high and low notes in the process. Smith played the keys for ‘Daniel In The Den’, while the rest of the band slowly crescendoed to a satisfying peak. Looping synths and uplifting instrumentals accompanied their performance of ‘Million Pieces’.

Bastille continued the show with one of their crowd-pleasers, ‘Pompeii’, and followed it up with ‘Good Grief’, which was briefly interrupted by a medical incident in the audience. The final songs before the concert reached its encore were ‘Laura Palmer’ and ‘Of The Night’.

“What a fucking beautiful place to finish the tour. After this tour I’m running the London Marathon… I’m likely going to have to be dragged over the finish line, because look at me,” said Smith to the adoring audience. He explained that he was running it for a breast cancer charity, which hits close to home because his mother suffered from breast cancer and was successfully treated.

“Thank you for listening, thank you so fucking much!” said Smith before the band finished the show with their breakout hit ‘Flaws’.