The Vaccines Revitalize London's Spirit
I first saw the catchy Londoners back in 2012 at Reading Festival and to be completely honest I wasn’t blown away; I actually found their set very boring and deficient of that wow factor.
Three years later at my favourite venue in London, I’m hoping the boys can prove me wrong at O2 Brixton Academy. Finalising their stay in South London with their third and final show, it was proof The Vaccines are still very much loved and definitely proved my initial opinion very wrong.
Performing all the loved songs from the album 'What did you expect from The Vaccines?' the crowd were dancing, smiling, and ultimately having fun; and that’s what this gig was... fun!
Yeah gigs are cool and you generally have a good time but The Vaccines were energetic, confident and a great band whose back catalogue is hit after hit. I hadn’t had this much fun at a gig in a while and from a band whom I had my doubts about it proved that The Vaccines have still got it.
Though the atmosphere was fun and vibrant, there was an unfortunate elephant in the room and discussing it with the people next to me we made it clear that we were now aware of the exits... with occasional shifty behaviour of looking around and at the back of the crowd, it was apparent there was tension and uneasiness. With the terrible attacks in Paris at the Bataclan just 6 days before it was clearly on everyone’s mind. But ignoring my paranoid self and looking around at people drinking, laughing, being silly with their friends, crowd surfing and throwing their arms in the air; it was also clear that nothing can come between people and their love for music, love for each other and love for peace.
It was also very brave of The Vaccines as many bands such as Papa Roach and Foo Fighters had cancelled gigs and tours due to those attacks. Performing for the 10th time at Brixton academy it was a mighty show and performing tracks such as “Handsome” and “Dream Lover” from the latest album 'English Graffiti', The Vaccines demonstrate that they can still make great records and very fun ones might I add to that.
Bursting confetti onto the crowd, screams and laughter echoed the halls and it seemed all worries had been forgotten. When a band came make you do that, forget about your worries and bring people together well that’s a successful band to me. Well done guys and thank you.
