THE VACCINES | LIVE REVIEW
Great Hall, Cardiff University Students Union, Fri 1 Feb
Springing onstage to Queen’s I Want To Break Free, The Vaccines proceeded to take the Great Hall by storm on Friday night, with Justin Young announcing how happy they were to be back. The sold-out crowd was certainly pleased to see them too, as the whole room surged toward the palm tree-clad stage in excitement at the opening chords of Teenage Icon. What followed was an action-packed setlist of fan favourites.
With four albums under their belts and boundless energy, the indie-rockers had everyone chanting along enthusiastically from the word go, kicking off with slow builder Wetsuit and the fast and furious Wreckin’ Bar (Ra Ra Ra), before sliding into the buoyant Out On The Street from latest album Combat Sports. When the audience were suitably rowdy, Young took a breather to introduce a track in progress, Let’s Jump Off The Top, a retro jump-around tune full of trademark infectious riffs and plenty of clapalong opportunities, swiftly following up with new single All My Friends Are Falling In Love.
While at times looking a little awkward, Young makes for an enigmatic frontman. Flinging himself around the stage and furiously throwing his arms out to the audience, every now and again pausing to reminisce on the last time they visited Cardiff, much to the audience’s glee. One thing was for sure, and that was that the band definitely didn’t want to leave too much time to catch your breath. Calming down for a second with the almost gentle Young American, the energy levels were hiked right back up again with Handsome and bouncy banger If You Wanna.
Before we knew it the encore had arrived, and much in the same vein as the rest of the evening was ramped full of energetic numbers from Combat Sports. Put It On A T-Shirt and I Can’t Quit bounced back to back off one another, before the closer All In White had every voice in the house crooning along. There’s life in these lads yet: let’s hope they don’t stay away too long.
words ANNIE BISHOP photos EMMA LEWIS
