Bombay Bicycle Club – Koko, London 22/08/08

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Tonight Koko promises all the things I have come to expect from Club NME, young trendy scenesters wandering around aimlessly, more interested in the opposite sex’s short skirts or skinny jeans than the music. Everywhere you turn there seem to be mini soap opera’s playing out, spurned by girls desperate for male attention and vice-versa.

Finally, after a few hours of watching the mating rituals of drunken underage teenagers, Bombay Bicycle Club take to the stage and are hedonistically embraced by the crowd. Bombay Bicycle Club’s members are only 18 years old, and yet their technical proficiency and youthful energy is incredible.

The band play through songs from their latest release Evening, including their debut single ‘Evening/Morning.’ Bombay Bicycle club hardly break any of the rules in the book with their own brand of indie-pop but nonetheless the melodies are confidently infectious and the crowd seems to be lapping it up as front man Jack Steadmen howls “I’m ready to owe you anything.”

With his trousers tucked into his socks, Steadman’s dancing is as erratic as the guitar hook in old-favourites taken from their EP like ‘Open House,’ as the crowded room jitters and surges along to the undeniably contagious rhythm.

After winning the Road To V competition 2 years ago, I can’t help but feel the Bombay Bicycle Club still have a long way to go. Being as young as they are, the music is still damn impressive, don’t get me wrong but sound wise, it is nothing special. The potential is there, but I just don’t feel it yet. Especially seeing as tonight they don’t seem to be their usual vigorous selves, barely talking to the crowd and struggling to fill the stage with their presence.

However, the jam-packed audience would seem to disagree with me: dancing to the feedback and humming of the guitars whilst intently listening to Steadman’s romantic yearnings. Towards the end of the gig the atmosphere has transformed from being a little dry and pretentious to one filled with electric energy. The sheer talent of Bombay Bicycle Club has everyone captivated, as they rip through song after song to cries of admiration from the front and continuous toe-tapping and head bopping from the balconies.

Bombay Bicycle Club on Myspace