With a discography of vibrant, light-hearted tunes that are cohesive and yet individually interesting, my hopes for Bedroom / Boredom’s London gig were set high. The band have had four years of experience performing, and their past gigs have seen crowds so wild that the band have feared for their equipment.
But when the gig started, my immediate thought was that I’d completely wasted my evening. It was no fault of the band, but the audience seemed largely unresponsive; almost too shy to properly interact. The band opened with ‘Pill’; a brilliantly written song, which practically begs to be sung along to, and yet it was as if the fans didn’t know it. We were under a brilliant canopy of disco balls, listening to a song that traipses its way upwards into a jubilant spiralling of bright notes, yet the reaction seemed lukewarm at best.
But the band were having none of it. They weren’t afraid to tell London that they were competing with crowds such as Leeds, and that really, they needed to liven up a bit. And it worked; the 150 capacity venue saw fans grow more and more lively, till tunes such as ‘Chilly’ saw a brilliant atmosphere of fans embracing the jump-about that the songs deserve. The audience were perfectly in tune with the dips in the song, and reacted to it as if it were a years-old favourite. The dedicated fans at the front weren’t afraid to shove each other, and everyone else, about, till eventually their enthusiasm was mirrored by the entire crowd.
It’s hard to believe the band have not yet played a festival; the tone of the songs seems a perfect fit for being belted out in a sunny field, and I personally cannot wait till they make their way onto a line-up. The gig saw old favourites such as ‘Where’s Kelly’, ‘Ghost’, and the much adored ‘Pill’, as well as tracks from their new EP, such as ‘Youthless’ and ‘TV Brain’. Led by the catchy chorus’ and upbeat guitars, fans and new listeners alike were jumping along to songs even if they didn’t know the lyrics. The band are entirely unpretentious, not taking themselves or their performance too seriously, which helped bring an easy-going, pally atmosphere to the North London Garage. They interacted with the crowd as if they were all old mates, and made sure they got to the venue with enough time to watch both their support acts alongside their fans.
If Bedroom / Boredom can turn even a reserved, dead-still crowd into a jostling circle of rowdiness, it’s hard to imagine them ever playing a bad gig. The show was intimate, full of playful enthusiasm, and most crucially, it was fun.
TWELVE INCH 