Live Review

Bleachers dazzle with nostalgic delights at first of two sold out London O2 Forum shows

19th March 2024

The opening night of Jack Antonoff & co’s From The Studio To The Stage tour is a joyful thing to behold.

Words: Sarah Jamieson
Photos: Emma Swann
21st March 2024

In recent years, much has been said of Jack Antonoff’s success as a producer to pop’s elite, but it’s within the live shows of his primary project Bleachers that it really feels as though you get a more meaningful sense of the man behind the desk.

Tonight, at Kentish Town’s O2 Forum, marks the opening night of his From The Studio To The Stage tour, and he certainly lives up to that promise; the stage is decked out in black-and-white checkerboard, while the set-up itself feels to mirror the creative corners of a retro recording studio, via something akin to the The Ed Sullivan Show. Above the band’s heads, a sign reading ‘Recording: Studio In Use’ glows at certain intervals, completing the cosplay and adding a cleverly intimate backdrop to the whole thing, all with a cheeky wink to his notable day job.

Doubling as one of the first headline shows in support of their newly-released self titled fourth album, it’s unsurprising that the set is dominated by those tracks, with the live setting amping up some of the more subtle details of the record’s opening three tracks, ‘I Am Right On Time’, ‘Modern Girl’ and ‘Jesus Is Dead’. It’s when their older material gets an airing, however, that the throng of dedicated fans - and Jack himself - really burst into life, with the frontman throwing himself off surfaces, standing atop his piano stool, and rushing around the stage to jam with various band members while the atmosphere lights up around them.

Bleachers, O2 Forum Kentish Town, London

There’s a zippy energy here that only really comes to the fore during Bleachers’ live shows, and proves Jack to be just as qualified a performer as producer. The swooning rush of ‘Everybody Loves Somebody’ into the ‘Hunky Dory’-ish ‘Goodmorning’ are a delight, while the unmistakably Springsteen warmth of ‘Chinatown’ - Bleachers’ only song to feature The Boss himself - comes dedicated to Jack’s home of New Jersey, after a particularly vocal group of NJ fans make themselves known in the crowd. Even a mid-set rendition of his ‘Strange Desire’ hit ‘Rollercoaster’ manages to whip up the kind of giddiness normally only reserved for encores and final hits, before the perfectly choreographed chaos of ‘You’re Still A Mystery’ (complete with band introductions) gets lifted straight from the E Street Band playbook to dazzling effect. A show that feels to embody the magic of both sides of his musical life, but with a good dose of irreverent fun to boot, tonight is a joyful thing to behold.