The rhythmic lights were bright and chandeliers hung over the packed crowd, the venue floors were slightly sticky, the frontman acted like the coolest person in the room and the guitarist looked like somebody’s dad who had stumbled onto the stage: it was Two Door Cinema Club at The Fillmore and they were fantastic.
The opener was a man named Petey who I had never heard of before and was a little skeptical of. Nevertheless, he brought an avid following of his own and an infectious energy that turned much of the crowd into believers by the end of the set. His indie-emo rock sound and irresistible earnestness certainly won me over. His lyrics battled issues like toxic masculinity, religion and mental health throughout his eight-song setlist, including in standouts like “Freedom to Fuck Off” and “Don’t Tell the Boys.”
Petey’s genuine affect on stage was his strongest asset, out in front of the whole crowd seeming truly overcome by their appreciation after each of his songs. One of the biggest compliments I can give him is that upon listening to his music on my own at a later date, it did not hold up for me; in other words, his intensely relatable stage presence was enough to get me to enjoy music I would not ordinarily find myself listening to.
At one point towards the end of his set, he pointed out three men on the balcony and effused about the long friendship they had all shared, how much he loved and appreciated them, how they knew each other since childhood, only to reveal that he actually did not know them and simply liked their vibe. That probably sums up Petey’s act more than anything else he did up there.
After Petey’s generous setlist, Two Door Cinema Club came out on stage and kicked off the main event, opening with “This is the Life” from their 2010 debut, “Tourist History,” which remains the centerpiece of their discography. They ultimately played nine of the album’s 10 tracks.
Their second song, “I Can Talk,” was the track where I first encountered the band, through its inclusion on the soundtrack for FIFA 11. With over 100 million streams on Spotify, it’s the kind of smash hit that many bands would reserve for the encore, so it was a treat to hear it played so early, especially as it was my own introduction to the group.
The core group is made up of Alex Trimble, lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Kevin Baird on bass, along with my personal hero of the event, lead guitarist Sam Halliday. He provided the band’s characteristic snappy and catchy guitar riffs throughout, but that’s not what drew my attention the most.
Alex Trimble’s stage presence might be described as the anti-Petey. Fitting in with much of the group’s lyrical content, the lead singer wears a suit and acts like he’s miles above it all. He’s the coolest man in the building. In fact, he’s the coolest man this side of the Atlantic. Conversely, Sam Halliday on stage is, to put it one way, just a little guy. His musical role is absolutely essential to the group’s sound, which he fulfilled as he strutted about on stage, pulling off some of the corniest dance moves I’ve ever seen and grinning through many of his guitar parts. He was everybody’s favorite Millennial dad on stage, laying down amazing riffs and carrying the energy, while looking like he was just happy to be there. Halliday’s fatherly flair even had a payoff later on, when he spotted a small boy in the front row as he spoke to the crowd between tracks and passed him one of his guitar picks.
Halliday’s best track of the night was “Bad Decisions,” a song that carries lots of nostalgia and personal importance for me, off of their criminally underappreciated 2016 release “Gameshow.” Halliday’s guitar part carried the song, sliding and bending to weave together its infectious hook as Trimble reaches his highest falsetto notes, — impressive for a song 45 minutes into a long set — then playing a guitar solo.
Another highlight of the show was its length. The band played for 90 minutes, performing 23 songs in full. Improbably, it never became flat; they maintained their energy throughout with the strength of their musical chemistry and the power of their act. The band’s strong sense of set order played a big role as well, as they distributed their songs skillfully to keep the momentum going, neither frontloading nor backloading their best tracks. The group deployed “Undercover Martyn” at the 19- song mark and had me and the rest of the crowd jumping well over 70 minutes into the set, then had two lower-key songs (“Cigarettes in the Theatre” and “Someday”) for a quick rest. That set up their devastating two-song finale, closing with “Sun” and “What You Know.”
At the end of their final song, “What You Know,” the band had the crowd sing the final chorus without instrumentation, then solicited a long, deafening ovation from the crowd before playing the song’s finale for real. The long applause before this pseudo-encore was one of the loudest I’ve ever heard, and was enough to break through Trimble’s unaffected demeanor, with the frontman cracking an earnest smile at the warm reception. After a deafening minute or so, the band played their final chorus and it was all over: a blindingly bright display of Two Door Cinema Club’s high-energy 2010s indie pop.
