Two Door Cinema Club, Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia

For a small-sized club, Johnny Brenda’s has an unusual set-up: in addition to its intimate standing area framing the triangular stage, an imposing, handmade balcony looms above the stage, allowing additional punters to view the action, gazing down. Locals packed the venue Thursday night to see Irish rock and pop band Two Door Cinema Club make their first-ever appearance in Philadelphia. It was a promising turnout, considering the tour had been announced many weeks before their debut album ‘Tourist History’ had even been available in America.

The popularity of the band’s album in the UK is most likely attributed to the poppiness of their overall sound. However, hearing the band live feels completely different, the guitars being banged much harder and the presence of a touring live drummer (Ben Thompson) add additional firepower to the already high-octane performance. You can’t sit still with this kind of show: it begs for audience participation, preferably of the hip shaking, arms flailing, voices shouting variety.

Indeed, gifted lead guitarist Sam Halliday obviously cannot keep the rhythm to himself, his feet grooving to his band’s music as if they had a mind of their own. Ginger-headed lead singer Alex Trimble is reticent between songs, but maybe he is saving his tongue for the lyrics he delivers with the precision of a machine gun (take the chorus of the exceedingly optimistic ‘Something Good Can Work’ for example). And bassist Kev Baird decides to remove his glasses before they start playing, as if he knows that his stage moves might cause them to fly off mid-performance. Wise move.

They may be young, but their well-oiled, energetic stage routine is similar to a band well beyond their years of playing together professionally. Almost. The rigours of touring seem to ensure that bands will become ill; this night, it was apparent that Trimble was under the weather, laughing off the number of times he walked into his microphone by accident and then coughing out the first line of ‘What You Know’. But they soldiered on, eager to show America what they’re made of.

The band leaves the stage, but the crowd obviously can’t get enough of them, chanting for ‘one more song! One more song!’ Their efforts are rewarded when the band re-emerges from backstage to play an encore of ‘Come Back Home’ followed by ‘I Can Talk’, two of the best numbers off ‘Tourist History’. This weeknight, it was crystal clear that the City of Brotherly Love were quite taken by these Irish lads and will welcome them back with open arms the next time they’re in town.