Vaccines Gig Review

The Vaccines

This is a gig I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. For the past three years, the Vaccines have been bombarding the world with their music releasing two albums in that time which both got to the top 5 of the U.K album chart. This fact alone is enough to compare them with the likes of the Smiths (who in the space of five years released four albums). In three years, the indie world has been hit by Vaccines mania with a massive following of girls wanting a piece of Justin, Freddie, Arni and Pete and one of those girls is me!

The Vaccines are renowned for their simplistic yet catchy songs and I always questioned whether these songs would work live. I also questioned whether the Vaccines were like so many Indie bands these days, make a good EP that suck you in and makes you think they’re the next big band but when you go and see them, you feel let down because the only thing that is big about is their ego. They aren’t, from what I saw and what I heard, they really do deserve to be one of the biggest bands in the country right now.

Deap Vally

For the Vaccines, Leicester is a special place for them because they did their first gig here and they have a massive fan base in the city as well. The gig as a whole was very good with entertaining support acts building us up to the penultimate performance we were all so excited about. The first act I saw was Deap Vally from California who formed last year. The band is made up of Lindsey Troy and Julie Edwards and made me think of a female Black Keys (as it was just the two of them.) and sounded a bit like Band of Skulls. I really liked them and actually bought their Live EP and they definitely got the audience moving. Next to come on was DIIV who are an Indie band for New York City. The bands also formed in 2011 and have already released their debut album “Oshin”, which is now in my iTunes Library. For a new band they were very surprising, they had nice guitar riffs and a nice beat which was good to get the audience going. They were nice to watch because I got the impression they are being a band for the fun of it not as a job yet.

DIIV

Onto the main story, the Vaccines. Even though I was at the back, I still loved every minute of the gig. The nice thing was that they didn’t just sing their singles; they also sang the songs that you really have to love them for and buy the albums to know for example I was very impressed and surprised when they sang “Aftershave Ocean” which for me was the first track that stood out as one I’d take in and love but isn’t their most well-known piece and considering they didn’t play all of the songs on the new record “Come of Age” it was nice to mix it in there, I think it really showed the men from the boys, metaphorically, showing the real fans from the crowd followers because I did notice a few people sitting down to their phones whilst this song was on. They weren’t chatty, which I like in concert because even though the concert tends to be shorter if the band just get on with it, you have more consistency and the concert flows nicely instead of being broken up into little staccato chunks that get the audience up and going and then making them stop suddenly. I like my concerts legato thank you very much! 

Was the concert short? No, I don’t think so they got through quite a few songs, not every song but quite a few. I got the impression they wanted to keep the concert upbeat and alive because they didn’t play any slow songs like “Weirdo” or “Lonely World” which was disappointing. For a gig in a smallish concert hall which hosts orchestras more than rock bands, I was very happy with what I got for my money.

Considering that next year people will be paying double to see them in arenas, I thought this gig was amazing and brilliant value for money. I prefer the small gigs, they always seem a lot more real to me. For example, I went to see Kasabian in the summer at the secret gig at Brixton and it was amazing because they were feet away from me, some of my biggest idols standing there that close and performing some of my favourite songs of all time. But in September, I went to see Noel Gallagher at Capital FM Arena in Nottingham, Noel Gallagher is one of my biggest idols who I love as much as Kasabian, if not more but there was something missing. The closeness you get with the band goes when you see them at an arena, for me it feels like that man on stage could really be anyone, you’re so far back, you wouldn’t really know the difference if it wasn’t for the cameras.

I think the Vaccines really are a band to add to your must see list, you have the chance to see them next year if you haven’t got tickets already. Don’t doubt whether they’re any good or not live, they are!