BOMBAY Bicycle Club’s show featured otherworldly, abstract animation sequences on five interlinking discs. photo: magic liwanag
Bombay Bicycle Club’s recent Manila concert was a feast as much for the eyes as for the ears, with the English indie band unleashing a swirl of vibrant synth loops and sweeping, multilayered instrumentation that swelled and ebbed in harmony with the hypnotic stage lighting.
The four-man band from London—Jack Steadman (vocals, piano and guitar), Jamie MacColl (guitar), Ed Nash (bass) and Suren de Saram (drums)—got the gears turning at the World Trade Center in Pasay City with “Overdone,” lead track of their fourth studio album, “So Long, See You Tomorrow.”
The mid-tempo number was a comprehensive sample of what to expect from the group that evening: coiling electronic sounds that evoked whimsy; feel-good, melodic beats; driving percussive passages; and Steadman’s quavering singing.
“I sit and pine for wasted time / My feet were strong / My head was numb / I feel it come/ I’m overdone…” the band’s unassuming frontman crooned to the crowd of a few thousand people, who had braved the oppressive Friday night traffic punctuated with intermittent downpours.
Their reward: All 18 songs from Bombay’s “So Long,” as well as its first and third albums, “I Had the Blues but I Shook Them Loose” and “A Different Kind of Fix” (songs from the second album, “Flaws,” were curiously left out). These albums showcase wildly contrasting musical styles, and this was discernible in the subtle mood shifts that the concert took as the boys powered through the lineup.
After the jaunty “Shuffle,” Bombay took on the balmy “Lights Out, Words Gone,” the funky, if a tad melancholic, “Come To,” and the punk-rock inflected “Open House.”
The playful “Always Like This,” slid into a calm midway through, before escalating to a blast of drums and guitars. Backing vocalist Liz Lawrence stepped forward to lend feathery vocals to the sultry licks of “Home By Now.”
We like, best of all, the band’s performances of “How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep” and “So Long, See You Tomorrow”—both atmospheric tunes that moved languidly and dashed with touches of electronic synths and folk-inspired instrumentation. Steadman performed mostly with a genteel air, merely jerking his knees as he plucked his guitar. But he didn’t hesitate to bang his head to the beat when he saw fit.
Seizure-inducing
The stage lights, intricate and entrancing, varied with each song and complimented the regular changes in tempo. White lights blinked at a seizure-inducing pace during the bass-heavy “Evening/Morning,” and while Steadman bathed in a soft orange haze in “Your Eyes,” which ended with beams of light crisscrossing and merging toward him.
Heightening the aural-visual experience was the projection of otherworldly, at times abstract, animation sequences on five interlinking discs that worked much like phenakistoscopes. Dancing skeletons accompanied “Shuffle”; cobras, the Bollywood-inspired “Feel”; a man free-falling in starry space, the groovy “Luna.”
The band ended the concert, mounted by Karpos Multimedia, with a forceful rendition of the danceable “Carry Me,” which had the crowd jumping and singing along. In an interview with the Inquirer prior to the show, Steadman admitted that some listeners found it hard to cope with the band’s ever-changing sound, but that those who stayed faithful always found something to connect with. The indie band’s faithful in Manila most definitely did.
(apolicarpio@inquirer.com.ph)