Two Door Cinema Club with The Zolas at the Orpheum Theatre

Photos by Moe Yang.

The iconic Orpheum Theatre has played host to many terrific indie rock acts attracting the likes of bands such as Of Monsters and Men, Mother Mother, Sam Roberts Band, and the list goes on. The most recent group to grace the stage was Two Door Cinema Club hailing from Ireland. With them they brought Vancouver talent, The Zolas, to bring that comfortable local feel into the venue. They have been on a west coast stretch with Two Door Cinema Club hitting Portland and Vancouver before wrapping up in Seattle. 

The Vancouver-bred Zolas took the stage just to tear the house down with their psychedelic take on indie rock. The five piece band opened with their guitar-synth heavy, Molotov Girls, the first track off their latest album, Swooner. Tiptoeing to the front of the stage to the psychedelic sound of Ancient Mars, one of the many classics that the Vancouverites in the crowd bellowed every word to. Lead singer Zachary Gray explained the magnitude of playing on the same stage of as James Blake, which he said was his first show he saw at the Orpheum. The band paid homage to the headlining act with their take on the classic Two Door Cinema Club song, What You Know, with Zach playing with his on stage sampler encompassing a spacey club-type instrumental. With their set they brought with them a contagious case of head bobbing and foot tapping with songs like Invisible and Strange Girl. They closed out their set with Escape Artist which brought the crowd together bellowing out the chorus with Zach going acapella for the final one and receiving a standing ovation from his hometown. Thanking the audience, he greeted fans eager to chat with him before finally exiting the stage. 

As the lights dimmed the audience poised for Two Door Cinema Club to take the stage, the lights flashed to a Euro club sounding beat that transitioned into the Zombie Nation’s Woah Oh Oh which you’d hear at most hockey games. The band took to the stage and opened with the first track off their breakout album from 2010. The classic sound of the chaotic guitar riffs had everyone reminiscing as they continued with the class from that album following Cigarettes in the Theatre with Undercover Martyn and Do You Want it All. With those chaotic guitar riffs they brought the seemingly endless strobe lights to match. 

Lead singer Alex Trimble had let the ginger locks grow since their 2013 visit to Vancouver and with it came a newly discovered stage presence as he insisted on leaving the mic stand and strutting around the stage with moves that gave an epic feel to the show. The group wasted no time powering through their set list as they kept addressing the crowd to a minimum and let the music speak for itself. 

Playing in front of seven LED panels went hand in hand perfectly with their new music and complemented their single, Bad Decisions, very nicely with two hands closing in on each other to match the lyrics. They closed their set by going back to the classics like Next Year, I Can Talk, and Sun. Most notably I Can Talk and Sun, which catchy hooks and powerful choruses brought a new and different energy into the venue. Returning to the stage for the encore, they closed out the entire set with their iconic What You Know. Another classic that got the entire audience jumping to the bouncy chorus and singing every word along with Alex during the slowed down verses. 

They exited the stage and fans made their way to the exit with smiles on their faces and hearts still racing from the excitement that embodies Two Door Cinema Club. The Irish five-piece band tore down the Orpheum in an almost elegant fashion and bringing The Zolas to open for them opened up a door for new fans. Truly a treat for any lover of music and definitely not a bad way to spend a Tuesday night.