Blossoms Live at Doncaster Dome review by Rob Johnson
Plodding. Pedestrian. Forgettable. Anyway, enough about the England game, let’s get to Blossoms…
Following England’s dreary 0-0 draw against the USA, the Doncaster crowd need livening up, and initially, Stockport five-piece Blossoms deliver the goods. ‘At Most a Kiss’ and ‘Honey Sweet’ are two of the best indie pop songs of the last decade, and both sound gorgeous here with Tom Ogden’s assured vocals soaring and the band in fine form.
The problem with Blossoms has always been familiarity. It’s often hard to distinguish between songs and as the jaunty synth-led ‘Oh No (I Think I’m in Love)’ merges into the jaunty piano-led ‘The Keeper’ it is clear that this will be a night of diminishing returns. Don’t get me wrong, Ogden and co. sound great throughout, but they don’t do much in terms of performance and visuals to distinguish these songs from the studio recordings. Of course, if the songs are good enough, that doesn’t matter, but there is a nagging feeling that too much of their set is filler rather than killer.
Having said that, ‘I Can’t Stand It’ is a banger and provides the evening’s first big moment, and ‘Cut Me and I’ll Bleed’ keeps the party going. Indeed, this part of the set, which also includes a genuinely incredible rendition of ‘Getaway’ – surely the band’s best song – is the highlight of the show. Unfortunately, they fail to build on this momentum with forgettable new song ‘Big Word’ merging into the naff white boy funk of ‘My Swimming Brain’ before the acoustic lilt of ‘My Favourite Room’ closes out the first part of the set. The latter of which does provide some much-needed sonic variation, at least.
The band return for a well-received encore of ‘There’s a Reason Why (I Never Returned Your Calls)’ and ‘Charlemagne’ – the latter of which admittedly sounds great – but as Blossoms leave the stage to a smattering of polite applause it’s difficult to shake the feeling that we have witnessed the Jordan Henderson of indie pop: solid, dependable, occasionally thrilling, but ultimately unexciting.
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