Photographs by Sean Chin.
The thing about Bastille is that it’s all pretty obvious. The soaring, sing along choruses and the charming good looks are part of the pop star package – and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this. But if you walked into Dan Smith’s concert at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre on Wednesday night expecting more than the usual genre tropes, you would have been disappointed. Smith and his Bastille project are good. It’s just not there to break boundaries.
Since forming in London in 2010, Bastille’s steadily gained a following with radio play on catchy singles, a handful of awards (including a Brit Award, mtvU Woodie, and Teen Choice Award), and an appearance on Saturday Night Live. The latter forced the band to cancel their last stop in Toronto – then scheduled for a January show at the Air Canada Centre. It was a minor dent in a global tour supporting 2013 debut Bad Blood and one that had taken Smith, Kyle Simmons, Will Farquarson, and Chris Wood to Toronto’s Phoenix Concert Theatre in September 2013.
The jump from the Phoenix to the Air Canada Centre is a big one, no doubt about it. It’s not one many bands are able to achieve and, while excitement amongst the teenaged crowd at the venue seemed high – the upper deck section was notably closed off.
Still, it’s hard to make a cavernous venue like the ACC feel small and approachable. Bastille, for all their pop hooks and campy “let’s all jump around” banter, made it feel inclusive and welcoming. “How are you guys at the back?” Smith queried early in the night. “You’re very far away. ‘Ello!”
It was an energetic show – and it had to be. Vocalist Smith hardly stood still to the point of it almost being distracting, running around the stage and jumping up on risers to keep the audience’s attention throughout the night.
Opening with Bad Blood single “Things We Lost in the Fire”, the set inevitably drew heavily from the first album – though Smith and company also pulled in some new material, B-sides, and cover songs to flesh out the 19-song set.
Perhaps the best and most redeeming thing about Bastille is that they’re very conscious of where they are and the space they occupy, both during the show and in the context of where they are as a band. Smith writes well for his voice – as evidenced on B-side “Laughter Lines”.
The 28-year-old gave himself plenty of other opportunities to show off his vocal range on soaring, open choruses written to be belted. I don’t say this often about the Air Canada Centre, but credit where credit’s due: the mix worked and it thankfully didn’t sound like either Smith or the instruments were playing to a concrete wall.
The audience got their first new material six-songs deep, with Smith introducing “Blame” – a song that gives the full band a chance to shine, his vocals dropping out in favour of a rocky finish – and explaining that it’ll be on the next album (he just has no idea when it’ll be released due to their hefty touring schedule that extends into early 2015.)
The mournful “Skulls” was comparable to an offering from fellow British musicians White Lies, while a slowed “Oblivion” brought out the audience’s cell phone flashlights en masse – Smith’s attempts to distract the crowd from their “depressing song”, he explained.
“No Angels” – a cover of TLC’s “No Scrubs” from Bastille’s two-part mixtape Other People’s Heartache – also got its time and, though Smith messed up the second verse, the band recovered well. He also jumped into the crowd for a run-through of the venue on set closer “Flaws”, delighting the seated masses.
A three-song encore of the Bon Iver-like “Get Home”, the Corona-Snap! mashup “Of the Night”, and platinum hit “Pompeii” ended Bastille’s energetic set – Smith encouraging the crowd to put their phones away and jump around like idiots with him. It was poppy, it was fun, and it was exactly what Bastille needed to do to keep the attention of the ACC crowd (a crowd that was very into it, it should be noted.) It’s not breaking the mould, but for when you just need a clean, wholesome night of in-your-face choruses and general stadium tropes, it turns out Bastille is more than capable of carrying that torch. We’ll just have to wait and see if the sophomore release will have them opening the upper decks, next time.
