Saturday the 29th of October saw the return of Bastille to Plymouth Pavilions for a show as part of their 2017 Wild Wild World tour. Supported first by Childcare, a punky four-piece fronted by a shirtless Ed Cares and later Rationale, a soulful five piece who were both well received by an appreciative and enthusiastic sold-out crowd.

 

The arena setting was enhanced by a few audience members in Halloween fancy-dress costumes and, in a nice local touch, the adornment of the stage with two incredible life-size wire mesh human figures sat atop a speaker stack commissioned from Plymouth artist Nikki Taylor.

 

Bastille took to the stage and it wasn't long before charismatic frontman Dan Smith had the audience in the palm of his hand, ably abetted by local boy Chris "Woody" Wood, the most hirsute of all the drummers proudly wearing his number 12 Green Army Plymouth Argyle shirt with chants of 'Green Army' regularly starting up between songs.

 

The band were supplemented by a brass and woodwind section which added substance to the resultant sound. A video screen showing a video feed from 'Wild World Communications' provided the backdrop for the evening.

 

An audience walk during the song 'Flaws' saw Dan move through the crowd to the mixing desk at the back of the arena and back to the stage again, affording the opportunity for many a youngster armed with a cell-phone to capture the moment the hero of the hour passed close by.

 

The band played nineteen songs followed by a very short interval and a three song encore. For the final song, the members of Childcare and Rationale who, by this point were all sporting Plymouth Argyle football shirts were invited back on stage to join in the crowd-pleasing anthem 'Pompeii'. Rather fittingly, at the end of this well-received show, the wild crowd was led in a final series of 'Green Army' chants by Woody, the last person to leave the stage.

 

Setlist

Send Them Off

Laura Palmer

Warmth

Snakes

Flaws

Oblivion

Lethargy

Things We Lost In The Fire

The Draw

The Currents

Bad Blood

Four Walls (The Ballad of Perry Smith)

Blame

Power

Of the Night

Fake It

Weight of Living Pt 2

Glory

Good Grief

Encore

Two Evils

Icarus

Pompeii

 

Words by Keith Hunt