By Maximillian C. Burgos
Sports Editor
Two Door Cinema Club provided a night that will live glorious splendor in the memories of everyone that went to its concert at the Electric Factory the night of Sept. 30.
Fans from around the tri-state area came to see the band perform, waiting hours in line to get front row seats. The line went around the block as the night progressed, but the fans were rewarded for their wait.
Two Door Cinema Club took a long time to take the stage after the opener, Circa Waves, left. For any casual fan, it felt like an eternity. For hardcore fans, it felt like they would never take the stage.
When the lights finally faded, the crowd lost their minds. Fog filled the room and the lights accompanied the thumping drums as they flashed around the stage, highlighting each member as sound blasted into the room.
The lighting was phenomenal. Allison Glantzberg, a sophomore physics major, recalls being blown away by the band’s performance.
“It was great how the lights accompanied the music,” she said. “Everything was so great. I was speechless.”
Two Door Cinema Club played all of their best music. The lead singer Alex Trimble looked out to the crowd with a very distant graze as he delivered flawless vocals. Each song started and ended with the crowd roaring and jumping up and down. During the song “Are We Ready?” the crowd grew so loud, it was almost deafening. Glantzberg recalls not being able to hear.
“I had to cover my ears for a second,” she said. “I couldn’t hear the band or the crowd. It was just a roaring mess of sound.” When Two Door Cinema Club performed its popular song, “Sun,” the band pretended to end the concert early and quickly left the stage. The crowd chanted, “encore” repeatedly. For a second, it seemed as if they would not come back out, but once they did the night went from great to amazing.
Two Door Cinema Club played through all of their songs in rapid succession. It was a nonstop thrill ride for fans like Glantzberg, who were drenched in energy the whole night.
Circa Waves, an indie rock band formed in Liverpool in 2013, opened for Two Door Cinema Club. While many in the crowd weren’t familiar with Circa Waves, they were happily enlightened by the concert’s end.
The lead guitarist of Circa Waves, Kieran Shudall, bursted onto stage full of electric energy.
“How are you doing Philadelphia?!” Shudall yelled in his thick English accent. The audience responded with cheers and excited chants. He nodded, gave the crowd a wide ear-to-ear smile and roared, “I fucking love this city,” into the microphone, sparking more cheers from the crowd.
Shudall started off the concert with a guitar riff for the ages. The music of Circa Waves was very melodic and had a heavy influence from the Strokes, but was original enough to not be a blatant ripoff. The music was energetic and only paused for the band to briefly introduce themselves after the second song. The drummer, Colin Jones, was a sweaty mess the entire night as he pounded away, breaking drum sticks left and right and tossing them into the roaring crowd.
Circa Waves blasted their way through all of their more popular songs including “Wake up” and “Fire That Burns.” For such a young band, Circa Waves had great showmanship. Shudall never missed a beat with his intense vocals. There were moments where he would scream into the microphone, neck veins bulging but all anyone could hear was the crowd roaring with excitement.
The fog from the stage rolled out the doors into the cold fall night. Two Door Cinema Club at the Electric Factory was a night that will be remembered for decades to come.
“I’ve never been to a concert like that,” Glantzberg said. “They played everything back-to-back-to-back. They only stopped for water. It was great.”
When the concert ended and the crowds shuffled out, most of the audience left the concert tired, drenched in sweat and a little deaf from the blaring music. In the end it was all worth it because nothing can replace the memory that the concert formed for each member of audience.
