Bastille is certainly one of the biggest groups to come up over the past decade. Bastille stopped at the YouTube Theater on Friday night (5/20) on their Give Me the Future Tour. Bastille is Dan Smith (Lead vocals/ Keys), Kyle Simmons (Vocals/Keys), Will Farquarson (Guitar/Bass), and Chris “Woody” Wood (Drums) There are also two backing vocalists and touring member since 2015 Charlie Barnes (Guitar/Keys/ Bass). Just 3 months ago on February 4th, Bastille released their newest album Give Me The Future. Smith had ideas for this album pre-Covid-19 Pandemic, but with the world constantly changing the whole concept for the album changed to go with the current times. They performed eight songs from the new album. In an article by Robin Murray on Clash Music Smith stated “Working on these songs in such an apocalyptic period, with everyone stuck at home, glued to screens, fed into the feeling that what is real and what is not has become pretty difficult to discern sometimes,” says Dan. “We’re in the age of deep fake, fake news and lying world leaders. But online, you can be anyone. What that does to our sense of self and to our relationships is huge and it’s fascinating.”
The show does revolve around the new album but is not in order. There were also a few video interludes on a screen above the stage shaped like a rearview mirror. After a video Bastille took the stage opening with “Stay Awake?” The whole group was on a big riser minus. Woody played electronic drums on the first two songs before going to his drum set and Farquarson switched between bass and keys.
It was easy to see the inspiration from George Orwell’s 1984 which is in one of the songs and of course Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World which is an interlude on the album. Bastille performed 20 songs ending with their biggest song “Pompeii” before returning for a two-song encore of “Hope for the Future”and “Shut Off the Lights.” During Happier a song recorded with Marshmello, Smith came into the crowd to sing. It was easy to see most of the fans there were born in the 90’s and some early 2000’s so it was very nostalgic hearing “Of the Night,” which is a combination of Snap!’s “Rhythm is a Dancer” and Corona’s “The Rhythm of the Night,” which were both major dance hits.
Words and photos by Alex Kluft
