Blossoms – The Dome – 18^th March 2017

Blossoms arrived at the Brighton Dome on Saturday night as part of the NME Awards Tour, which has also become a fitting celebration of their album's performance – it was the top selling debut by anyone last year with the exception of Bradley Walsh. With all three acts coming from the same part of the country, it was a night where the sounds of northern indie bands dominated the airwaves.

The evening got underway with Rory Wynne, a self-proclaimed rock star from Stockport, taking us through a short and spiky set of indie rock. Delivering his vocals with a snarl that owes more than a little to Liam Gallagher in its delivery while wiggling his hips like Jarvis Cocker, he seemed a little unsure as to how to handle a venue of this size. Part way through the final song, he put his guitar down and walked off-stage without saying a word. Whether this was because he was being cut short due to time or just a gimmick for the night, it seemed to take his band by surprise and they all filed off silently while the audience reacted with laughter rather than gasps. A strange way to end a decent set, it all felt a little contrived.

Next up were Cabbage, a five-piece post-punk band from Manchester who recently made headlines attacking The Sun newspaper after it tipped them for success, calling the paper “odious” and “backwards”. Frontman Lee Broadbent limped onto stage having recently fractured part of his pelvis, and delivered most of his vocals sitting down in a wheelchair or perched precariously on the drum kit. Raucous, brash and wild, their sound and delivery was very different to the other acts and I’m sure that this would have received a mixed reaction from some in the crowd. Personally, I loved the chaos of the set and even having their frontman immobile for most of the time didn’t stop the energy or sense of mischief throughout. Finishing off their show by screaming that “anyone with good painkillers can have a backstage pass if they bring me one”, Broadbent wheeled off the stage with the rest of his band.

There was a procession of classic northern indie hits played on the PA while waiting for the main event, getting the crowd hyped as well as showing that the band feel part of that proud heritage. As they arrived on stage, the atmosphere increased with thick dry ice and strobe lighting only occasionally picking out the group. Starting off with ‘At Most A Kiss’, their sound was beefier than I expected as they raced through the likes of ‘Texia’ and ‘Blow’. Right from the off, frontman Tom Ogden roamed backwards and forwards between his microphone and the drums, while his bandmates made little impression being tucked away in the shadows or keeping still. This seems a strange dynamic for a five-piece band, and I would love to see the others step forward and show more of their own personalities from time to time in future.

Similar to The 1975 and Two Door Cinema Club, Blossoms may look like a pop band but watching them live, you get the impression that they think of themselves as leaning more towards a heavier sound than those two. However, it was the pop hooks that got the biggest reaction from the crowd, as ‘Smashed Pianos’ resulted in a breakout of mass dancing to its chorus of “I can’t switch on and off like you”. ‘My Favourite Room’ elicited a similarly fevered response, Ogden singing this acoustically and alone on stage before breaking into short covers of Babybird, Oasis and George Michael.

There’s no disputing that they know their way around a tune, but a long set like this highlights some limitations at a very early stage in their career. As B-sides and cuts from the extended version of the album came into the middle part of the show, there was just a little too much filler and not enough killer, making it vital that the new songs that Ogden has mentioned working on start to come through. As they basked in the glory of huge hits and their final song ‘Charlemagne’, tonight felt more like the victory lap before having to concern themselves with what comes next. On this show they may not have earned their place at the top table of great northern bands just yet, but they could certainly be on their way.
Jamie Macmillan

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