Bastille spills Bad Blood in Slessor Gardens on Day Two of Dundee’s Summer Sessions

★★★★★ (5/5)

BASTILLE PERFORMING AT DUNDEE’S SLESSOR GARDENS
PHOTOCREDIT: CALUM BUCHAN

Bastille were in Dundee for the last gig of their UK tour celebrating the 10th anniversary of their Bad Blood album which reached number one in 2013. It attracted a younger passionate crowd, many of them arriving early to secure a place at the front. They were rewarded with some great support acts across the afternoon and evening.

Edinburgh’s Jennifer Stewart kicked off the day and her rocky set went down well with the small crowd of early arrivers. A highlight was her country rock flavoured single ‘No Hard Feelings’. A great voice, good tunes and lyrics, it will be interesting to see how her musical career pans out in the future.

Spyers took to the stage with a positive attitude and bonded quickly with the crowd. Their set provided a few different genres from dance to heavy rock, all driven by a thundering bass and drums. The two singers, Keira and Emily’s voices worked well together and the band gave the small young audience a tight, professional set which was received with generous applause. Highlights were post-punk ‘Fake ID’ and the dance inspired new single, ‘Money’.

The crowd had grown larger for the arrival of Motherwell’s finest the LaFontaines, Kerr Okan, Jamie Keenan and Darren McCauchey.

These guys know how to put on a show with Kerr demanding the crowd’s attention from the off. By the end he had them jumping, waving and swaying together and cheering each new song. The band’s style was unique, with Kerr’s hard rapping verses and Darren’s anthemic choruses. Every song was full of energy driven along by Darren’s full on drumming and Jamie’s fire cracker guitar.

The band has been on the go since 2008, and the performance was tight and professional but also full of fun. The audience lapped it up, especially when Okan left the stage to go walkabout across the park. The band’s new album Junior is out now and the band finished the set with ‘All In’ and left the stage to huge cheers.

DYLAN was up next and they are a band on the move, having supported some big music names over the last year. DYLAN is the pseudonym of Tash Woods who is being seen as a rising star of British pop. Her tongue in cheek rock chic persona with a thundering backline was hugely popular with the Dundee crowd.

DYLAN brought the energy for this excited crowd from the get go, opening with the full-on ‘Lovestruck’. The band consists of Tash on guitar, and she introduced the other band members as Axl Rosie on baritone guitar and Phil Colin on Drums. The set was varied and interesting. A cover of ‘Paradise City’ merging into ‘Someone Else’ and ‘Treat You Bad’ melts into a cover of Harry Styles’ ‘Kiwi’ and was followed by DYLAN’s ‘You’re Not Harry Styles’.

Tash’s voice is interesting, going from a Shania Twain Americana in ‘Every Heart but Mine’ to Pop Princess cool in ‘Girl of Your Dreams’ and her songs are sharp and witty and full of energy. As a band, they are tight and rocky. A quality act. The highlight was their new single ‘Liar Liar’ which Tash co-wrote with Bastille’s Dan Smith and Dan joined DYLAN onstage to perform it. The crowd went wild at this real highlight.

The band will be touring again later in the year and you should catch them if you can.

The Slessor Gardens were full by the end of DYLAN’S set and the audience were ready for the headliners - the excitement was growing.

This Bastille gig was a celebration of the release of their first album ‘Bad Blood’ which reached number one in the UK album charts. The video at the back of the stage flickered into life showing footage of the band from 2013.

Huge cheers greeted the band as the strode out smiling and waving to the crowd and the atmosphere went straight to full beam as Bastille went into the album’s first track ‘Pompeii’, one of their most popular songs which normally closes their sets. This set the benchmark for the crowd’s energy for the rest of the gig.

Three more singles from the album followed ‘The Things We Lost in the Fire’, ‘Bad Blood’ and ‘Oblivion’. The band was in great form, producing an amazingly rich, deep sound, crystal clear in the Dundee evening. The band, vocalist Dan Smith, keyboard player Kyle Simmons, bassist, guitarist Will Farquarson and drummer Chris "Woody" Wood were joined by regular gigging member, multi-instrumentalist Charlie Barnes.

Funky ‘These Streets’ was next, followed by electro-pop ‘The Weight of Living Part II’ and the dance track ‘Icarus’ which had the crowd bouncing and singing along with the catchy chorus. There was a real party atmosphere across the gardens.

The band’s beautiful fifth single ‘Oblivion’ saw Dan on the piano sharing the lovely lyrics. When you fall asleep with your head upon my shoulder/When you're in my arms but you've gone somewhere deeper.

‘Flaws’ brought a Celtic vibe to the night, hugely enjoyed by this Scottish crowd, only adding to the brilliant atmosphere. Dan stepped out into the crowd and was immediately surrounded by phones held up to film him. The audience loved it when he jumped over the barrier to the back field.

Dan’s unmistakable voice introduced ‘Daniel in the Den’ whose chill vibe gave the crowd a chance to catch their breath before the band launched into the unmistakable opening of “the only song about a dead girl from an American TV show” ‘Laura Palmer’. The song raced towards the chorus which saw the crowd bouncing along. But, this is your heart/Can you feel it?/Can you feel it?/Pumps through your veins/Can you feel it?/Can you feel it?

The angsty ‘Get Home’ started with Dan’s plaintive voice over the piano joined by the others creating a beautiful multi-layered vocal painting. Dan sat to sing and phones lit up across the audience sharing a lovely moment.

The last ‘secret’ track from the album ‘The Weight of Living Pt I’ finished the first half and after huge cheers from the crowd, Dan tells them that, as this is the last gig of the Bad Blood tour, that this will be the last time the band will play the whole album. It feels like an historic moment.

The band left the stage but the night wasn’t over and they returned with the song voted by millennials as the song they would like to be played at their funeral ‘Good Grief’. Part 2 was off to a rocking start with the crowd, still buzzing with energy, chanting the anthemic chorus.

The garage rock ‘WHAT YOU GONNA DO?’ started a party on the stage with all the musicians dancing around as Charlie thrashed out a guitar solo on a beautiful Mustang. Next, a thundering bass line announced ‘The Draw’ whose chorus was sung back to the band by the passionate crowd.

Will tasked to go back to the cello for the bitter sweet ‘Laughter Lines’ a gorgeous song about friendship and the passage of time. Lots of hugging in the crowd. A lovely moment.

The band’s 2016 collab with Marshmello ‘Happier’ is a poppy mood lifting crowd pleaser which kicked off the dancing again, both on-stage and in the crowd, as the evening accelerated to its close. Poppy ‘Million Pieces’ was next up, then the band kicked off ‘Of the Night’ a Bastille song built around a song from Dan’s first mix tape, Corona’s floor filler ‘The Rhythm of the Night’.

Dan thanked the audience for an amazing night and asked them to join a huge karaoke just as the heavens opened, and the rain that held off for the two days of the festival arrived. The delighted crowd belted out the words of ‘Shut Off the Lights’ and an enormous cheer at the end of the song reverberated around Dundee’s city centre. What a day!