One of Brighton’s favourite four-pieces Bloom had quite an unconventional beginning. Essentially the offspring of a previous band of theirs (The Beautiful Word) due to a radical change in their music style, transitioning from folk-inspired music to a far more ambient style of indie-pop. Since then, they’ve released an impressive debut album titled What Is Life, which successfully showed a much more refined approach to their sound that was promised with their re-branding.
Bloom have since shown eagerness to take the next step in their musical journey, setting themselves the goal of releasing new music in 2019. I was very excited to see what they had in store when performing at The Prince Albert on Wednesday evening. This Christmas-themed gig served as both a brilliant show and a way to raise awareness of Bloom’s new album that they have already begun to work on.
Before the first supporting act had begun, a lot of people had made their way up to the stage area at the top floor of The Prince Albert. There was a lot of chatter and spirit amongst the crowd already that indicated excitement towards what would be in store.
The show kicked off with Ciel, a Netherlands-born indie quartet that has recently moved into the city. Despite still being fairly new to Brighton, their atmospheric and immersive sound felt right at home, with the crowd clearly enjoying it straight away. It seemed as if Ciel had been a local band for ages thanks to how their style reflected Brighton’s culture so well. It was certainly a marvellous way to start the evening off.
Following up was Bloom’s second supporting act Fröst, which offered an exciting style of electronic pop with the majority of their tracks having a very upbeat atmosphere which successfully engaged with a lot of people in the crowd, especially with their cover of ‘Shout’ by Tears For Fears. By using a wide range of synth melodies and different effects, Fröst showed a tonne of depth in their brilliant live set.
In the interval before Bloom were set to take the stage, the crowd were becoming noticeably bigger, to the point where not an empty space was to be seen. Everyone was buzzing with anticipation.
Bloom had the crowd’s full attention from the moment their performance began. Their set consisted of their existing hits and a few new tracks which displayed an added sense of depth and refinement. Their sound felt extremely fresh thanks to the band’s level of innovation and ambition (as well as a lot of shiny new musical equipment). It was a set where everybody in the crowd completely indulged themselves in Bloom’s music, particularly with the new tracks. Their music, as always, was very catchy as well as ambient and made for an excellent live atmosphere. Concluding their colourful set, Bloom decided to play all of their classic bangers to finish the show off on an all time high.
I wouldn’t be able to think of a better way to spend one of the evenings leading up to Christmas than seeing Bloom and all of the other acts at The Prince Albert, in what was a very heart-warming and intimate Christmas gig with a merry crowd and bright atmosphere.
Joe Boothby
Website: wecanbloom.com
Facebook: facebook.com/wecanbloom
Twitter: twitter.com/wecanbloom