Don Broco, O2 Academy, Birmingham - review
Last night, Don Broco played their 'biggest Birmingham show to date' to the delight of crowds at Birmingham's O2 Academy.
The Bedford quartet are known for their raucous live shows, that leave the crowd and the band alike exhausted. Yesterday's show didn't disappoint, as the band embodied raging tornadoes from the minute they stepped onstage, and the audience happily mirrored their enthusiasm.
"How are you doing Birmingham? We want to start this show as we mean to go on, lets get some energy in this room," yelled charismatic vocalist Rob Damiani, who had the crowd in the palm of his hand from start to finish, from every dance move reminiscent of 70s disco films, to every shared memory with the crowd.
"I don't know if you know this, but Birmingham is one of the first places we played as a band," Rob told the crowd.
"We had our best Slam Dunk set here last year, and we've been looking forward to this show for a long time.
"We love Birmingham, it is somewhere we'll never miss on a tour."
And the audience certainly reinforced the band's love for the area, the show was amazing to watch from the balcony as the crowd mimicked a tidal wave throughout the set - rising and falling constantly as the music controlled their every movement.
The set itself was a mix of songs both old and new, starting with smash hit single Pretty, through to new track Everybody, contrasting against 2015 single What You Do To Me.
This eclectic range of songs showcased how far the band have come as musicians - from the visceral power of You Wanna Know, to the smooth grooves of Superlove.
Don Broco have developed a taste for the theatrics after a sell-out show at London's Alexandra Palace last year, and this showmanship was present even at this more intimate show. The lighting brought each song to life, notably with the band being bathed in pink and blue - reminiscent of their 2015 album Automatic - when they played the fan-favourite, album-titled track.
The band played a selection of songs from their brand new album Technology, that remarkably went down just as well as their classic tracks. Its a stereotype that fans go to a concert, and groan when they hear the band say 'we're going to play a new one' - this certainly wasn't the case for Don Broco.
New tracks Technology, Porkies and the raging ¥ (Yen) went down a treat with fans, who exhibited the same amount of love for these songs as they would any other.
One track stood out from the others however, and that was Thug Workout. The 2008 track is renowned at Don Broco shows, due to one strange tradition that happens at every show.
During the middle eight of this song, mosh pits open up and see various fans jump into the middle to do push-ups until the instrumental interlude ends - and Birmingham was no different, with legions of fans getting their fitness hit in the middle of the show.
Despite the set being varied, one thing brought all of the tracks together in perfect unison - and that was the band's expert execution of them. Each guitar riff was blisteringly heavy and perfectly played, each bass line was deep and smooth, each drum beat was spine-tingling and powerful, and each lyric was delivered flawlessly - whether that be soulful and harmonic, or gruff and raw.
The room went dark and the walls shook with chants of 'we love you Broco, we do', and the band came back to the stage once more in one last burst of pure energy.
Ending on new singles Come Out to LA and T-Shirt Song, Don Broco left the crowd breathless, and cemented their status as one of the best live modern rock bands.
