White Lies - Bournemouth O2 Academy

Posted 27th Nov 2009 in Live Reviews, White Lies by Francis Jolley | O2 Academy, Bournemouth |

Many Bournemouth eyebrows were raised when White Lies chose to play the 02. Can a band who hasn’t exactly owned the charts this year - debt album To Lose My Life...'s brief, low-selling topping of the charts in January notwithstanding - sell out a venue of over 1,000? How can a band that only have two songs fill a place that size?

With this in mind I was expecting a curtain covering half the arena and an awkward unease surrounding the place. In reality I was very, very wrong, as tonight the 02 was buzzing. Stupidly I expected many a Bloc Party /New Age- Joy Division fan in skinny jeans, sipping cider. Instead, it was infested with groups of 30 somethings hell bent on air punching their way through the course of the gig. Maybe this was due to Europe playing the 02 recently? Even still it was still rather odd.

The band themselves performed exactly as required, a little chat in-between virtually all of the debut album, plus one new song (if anyone actually noticed). Unbelievably the whole crowd seemed entranced during their whole set; but then anyone performing in front of a backdrop made of a 50ft wall of lights will always take on a certain God-like quality. An encore of Talking Heads' ‘Heaven’ ( ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ may have been a bit too obvious) and the epic ‘Death’ allowed the crowd to go berserk one last time, before the house lights went up. Chants of “more” ring out through the arena, whilst grown men leave the front with their white t-shirts stunk to their bodies. White Lies may be around a bit longer than first imagined.

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