Bastille have been carving a name for themselves since forming in 2010 and normally now play arena’s that hold pushing 10,000 people, so it’s quite the treat to see them in the Marble Factory which is paltry 1,600 capacity. This is a stripped back album launch show for their new offering ‘Give Me the Future’, with just 3 of the normal 5 that appear in the touring band, this being lead singer Dan, Will and touring guitarist Charlie. The set is previewed by a recorded track from their new album.

The band come on to rapturous applause and set proper starts with ‘Future Holds’ from the new album where Dan certainly got to show off his vocal range, in fact it’s probably lucky the drinks were in cans, and I think any glasses would have shattered with the high notes. Some very good news comes next when they announce that said new album has in fact hit the number 1 spot in the albums chart. In fact, based on that news, I am sure they could not be ‘Happier’ so that was up next, originally recorded with Marshmello, but Bastille showing they are more than capable of doing it themselves.

As well as going back to the old days in terms of venue size, apparently, they are also driving their own van for this tour, getting back to basics on their first proper tour back on the road after the obvious delays in the last couple of years. The other way it is a bit different from normal gig is they were taking request from the internet first, as well as people’s dreams (more on that later) so at times it was a bit gig and a bit panto with audience participation, but I am sure “Tom from Weymouth” enjoyed his request of ‘Power’. One important question from the audience was what they had for dinner, nothing yet probably due to the early-stage time.

Now back to those dreams, possibly one of the most bizarre, but entertaining bits of a gig from a band this size I have witnessed. Basically, we had Theresa with Swindon listing her dream online which was being naked on a Zoom call and nobody noticing, then questioning if that was weird – the answers certainly a yes. But the impressive bit was Will working it into title track of the new album ‘Give Me the Future’. This was shortly followed by another one from the new album ‘No Bad Days’.

Next up was a run through a couple of their most well-known songs with ‘Good Grief’ up first which certainly got the crowd in good voice to back them up. “Dead Volcano People” is possibly one of the best ways on introducing one of your songs, of course it makes sense when this song is ‘Pompeii’, another that happened to be requested from the crowd at just the right time but I think it was on the setlist anyway. Tonight, it was a stripped back version of the song making it almost orchestral but none of the vocal overlay that it may be famous for. Great to hear a band reworking their own song and the crowd responding suitably.

In what seemed to quite a short set, about 10 songs, last track was current single ‘Shut Off the Lights”, in the theme of the evening they looped the crowd singing the chorus back into the track. Considering Dan was making a big point about it being off the cuff and he also was suffering with a chest infection, it sounded pretty amazing from where I was stood. A sign of a band that have really honed their craft and can produce a great show even under some challenging circumstances.  Those going to the arena shows would be in  for a bigger show.