Review: Two Door Cinema Club perform at Margate Summer Series, Dreamland
Published: 11:57, 10 September 2023
As night fell on one of the hottest September days on record, Two Door Cinema Club brought a raucous indie dance party to Dreamland.
The Northern Irish trio arrived in Margate yesterday to find a town heaving with beachgoers, with the band posting a video on Instagram of the packed seafront opposite the venue.
The indie rockers, who burst onto the scene over a decade ago in 2010 with their acclaimed debut album Tourist History, were clearly a popular booking for the theme park's impressively eclectic Summer Series of concerts, with the gig almost selling out.
The packed audience eagerly awaited the band's arrival on the Scenic Stage, but first, it was time for the opening act in the form of Circa Waves.
Not that the crowd needed much warming up in the scorching late-summer heat, but the Liverpudlian five-piece provided some very strong support.
It's not a band I had heard of but they seemed to have a large following in the crowd, with some wearing band t-shirts and many singing along to their catchy indie pop tracks word for word.
Many of their songs did sound vaguely familiar, but it wasn't until their finale, T-shirt Weather, that the recognition of: "Oh, it's THAT band" dawned on me.
The excitement was now palpable for the main act, who opened strong with the life-affirming This Is The Life from their debut album.
The thousands-strong crowd danced and jumped about as the tinkly guitar riffs, thumping bass and clean, high-energy drums shifted the energy up a gear.
But as the proverbial curtain went up, so did a wall of hands clutching phones, forcing me to strain for a view of the stage that wasn't via someone else's screen.
Charismatic frontman Alex Trimble, suited and booted in the sweltering heat, told the crowd in his Northern Irish drawl he was happy to be in Margate for the first time.
Despite being one of the most successful indie bands to come out of the UK in recent years, Two Door Cinema Club are still not quite in the mainstream. But anyone who hasn’t heard of the Bangor band would almost certainly recognise one or more of their catchy songs, which have featured on soundtracks including The Inbetweeners, video game FIFA and a handful of teen films.
The perfectly-judged setlist went down a storm. The dominance of songs from their debut album was very welcome. The likes of early hits Undercover Martyn and What You Know were staples on the playlists of indie clubs from my youth, and unsurprisingly elicited the most energetic response from the crowd. There's nothing worse than when a band won't play their hits.
But their most recent tracks, including the odd one from their latest album Keep on Smiling, also proved hugely popular with the crowd, with many belting out the lyrics to the joyful Wonderful Life.
Support for the newer stuff was perhaps indicative of the average age of the audience of mainly 20-somethings. The inflated condoms being bounced around the venue was another clue!
You wouldn't necessarily think inoffensive indie pop would lend itself to a mosh pit but sections of the crowd gave it a good go. It was all very good-natured, with participants clearly loving life as they bounced around and knocked into each other.
Rounding off with another firm fan favourite (and golden oldie) Something Good Can Work, the band left the stage, sweating and smiling, to chants of ‘one more song’ – the sign of a good gig.
Margate Summer Series has hosted the likes of Queens of the Stone Age, Placebo, Olly Murs and Tom Jones, with PIL and UB40 still to come this month.
For more information, visit margatesummerseries.co.uk.
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Lowri Chant