Tudor Cinema Club (Two Door Cinema Club)
Tuesday 12th April 2016 – Limelight, Belfast
Tuesday nights in Belfast aren’t known to be the most ideal night of the week to attend or put on a local gig yet the Limelight was packed to capacity on this particular evening. Passers-by might have wondered what all the fuss was about and whether Tudor Cinema Club were yet another band they hadn’t heard of yet. For those in the know, however, it was the long awaited return to the live arena for Bangor’s Two Door Cinema Club.
Dublin based blogger Nialler 9 peaked suspicions approximately two weeks before the show with a post mentioning a Two Door Cinema Club tribute band playing shows in Dublin, Galway & Belfast. Many thought it was unlikely to be anyone but the real thing and made a plunge for the keenly priced tickets. The game was officially up after the Galway date as social media confirmed our suspicions that the Bangor band were in fact playing under the Tudor Cinema Club moniker. By this point tickets for the intimate show were long gone.
For anyone brave enough to snap up tickets on the off chance it was TDCC, it proved to be a wise decision. It has been two and a half years since the band last played a show but there was little to suggest they were out of practice. Rather the opposite in fact as Alex, Kevin, Sam & their supporting cast blasted through a spellbinding eighteen track set.
From the opening salvos of ‘Sleep Alone’ and ‘Undercover Martyn’, there is barely time to pause as they reel hit after hit off their back catalogue which for a band of only two albums is rather remarkable. Many assumed that they would use the shows to preview new material but the closest we get is their last single ‘Changing of the Seasons’. It would have been nice to hear a few new tracks but their absence means that energy levels and the attention of the audience never dwindle. The middle of the set is stolen by the lavish beauty of ‘Sun’; full of summery vibes that seem to sweep the whole crowd into high spirits. The back end of the set is dominated by tracks from their second album ‘Beacon’ but, they finish with a bang throwing down radio favourites ‘Cigarettes in the Theatre’ and ‘What You Know’ to an audience who don’t want the evening to come to an end.
The band seem a little surprised by the positive reaction of the crowd but really we should be thanking them. TDCC are a band that should be placed high up on festival bills and headlining arena tours rather than playing intimate shows in small clubs. Newly acquired transatlantic twangs aside, it was a privilege to see them at such close quarters because album number three will surely place them firmly back in the public conscious again.
