THE VACCINES | LIVE REVIEW
Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff, Tue 1 Dec
The Motorpoint Arena has been made to look much smaller, the sides screened off with black cloth and the balconies closed. The reason why becomes apparent when The Vaccines come on stage. No big screens, a blank stage with minimal lighting apart from the roaming floor lamps which move in sync to the tracks – giving you a glimpse of a facial expression every so often.
Opening with hits Handsome, Teenage Icon and Dream Lover, the crowd needs no coaxing to sing along. However, a lack of big screens certainly takes away from the experience. In a venue of this size, everyone past the first 10 rows back are liable to feel a bit left out and can be seen looking to each other rather than towards the stage.
The minimalist vibe doesn’t match The Vaccines’ sound. Anthems such as Wetsuit and Post Break-Up Sex seem to get lost in the darkness of the arena. When they start to play tracks from their latest album English Graffiti, there’s a definite lull in the room. These are not the mega guitar based anthems we are used to from The Vaccines; you wonder whether they are just here based on their previous merit.
There is absolutely no audience interaction, something which is imperative for an audience of this size. Considering The Vaccines made their name through playing festivals and high profile live appearances on Jools Holland and David Letterman’s TV shows, this new, toned-down, almost bashful aura from the band is slightly confusing.
The lighting gets better throughout the show, too: in fact, it becomes mesmerising, to the point where you’re almost unaware the band is onstage. Your eye can only process the massive flashing lights and the band is just a blur in the background. Maybe this is what they were going for with the stripped-back setting: impairing your vision to decrease your other senses as the sound is the only thing you can really focus on. The level of noise increases as the audience joins in word for word on hits such as Wreckin Bar (Ra Ra Ra) and If You Wanna. After rapturous chants of “more, more, more” they returned to the stage for an encore with an acoustic version of No Hope and indie pop hit Nogaard.
No doubt card-carrying Vaccines fans enjoyed the night, big screens or no. However I would be worried at their potential to play another tour of this size after seeing how the tracks from their latest album were received.
words DENIECE CUSACK photos MIKE LEWIS