Having headlined the O2 in 2013, The Vaccines were back in town for an all together more intimate gig — at Camden’s 150-capacity Dublin Castle.
They’re one of several high-profile bands who this month will play one-off shows in smaller venues as part of War Child’s Passport Back to the Bars initiative.
With two critically acclaimed albums under their belts and a third, English Graffiti, in the offing later this year, Justin Hayward-Young and co haven’t played a venue this tiny since their first ever London show, at the now defunct Flowerpot in Kentish Town.
Yet there’s something apt about hearing The Vaccines’ garage-rock in a space not much bigger than a garage. Wreckin’ Bar (Ra Ra Ra) was all the more exciting for being sung in an actual bar, while a chorus as strong as Teenage Icon’s needed no expensive lightshow to propel it skyward.
New songs were sprinkled among old favourites. Dream Lover carried the same arena-sized intentions as the Arctic Monkeys’ Do I Wanna Know?, the buzzsaw guitars of 20/20 marked it as a future live favourite and Want You So Bad was as hypnotic as a magic eye picture of Derren Brown.
With its stop-start lyrics and earthy bellowing, All in White was essentially Mumford & Sons in skinny jeans. Yet this was the smallest of gripes in an otherwise excellent set.
“If you wanna come back, it’s alright,” sang Hayward-Young on the riot-inducing If You Wanna. The lucky few to witness him and his band last night will doubtless have been thinking the same thing.
Latest music reviews
