If you'd stepped into any given indie-dance night at any given club in Miami during the 2010s, crunchy guitar anthems from the Northern Irish band's 2010 debut album, Tourist History, were a guaranteed play. Yet, the group's cult Miami following — we're hardly the land of alt-rock — had long resigned to watching shaky YouTube uploads of distant European festival sets. That is until the band's redemptive Tuesday-night performance, best described by Baird as a "long-overdue first date."
Like any first date, the air was heavy with kismet and expectation. Excited Millennials (of whom being a Two Door Cinema Club fan is a clear sign) filled the theater's stands, while the show's opener, Jacksonville-based Flipturn, saw an impressive turnout from local Gen Z fans.
Dillon Basse, Flipturn's frontman, kicked the night off with hypnotizing vocals not far off from the wail of a whammy bar in what was an in-your-feels start to the evening. The crowd mellowed out to the ethereal sounds of "August" and "Savannah," bopped familiarly to grooves like "Sad Disco" and "Playground" from the band's Shadowglow (2022) album, and were treated to two unreleased songs.
As promised, Miami's favorite Irishmen — frontman Alex Trimble, bassist Kevin Baird, and guitarist Sam Halliday — took to the stage at 9:15 p.m. with the opening electro-beats of "This is the Life." Trimble has always boasted a power-filled voice, and the band's commitment to a punchy sound that doesn't veer into muddy still holds, but it seems FPL Solar Amphitheater's couldn't. A loud pop from the speakers, a 15-minute break, and an onstage announcement signaled Miami's record-breaking temperatures as the culprit for the show's premature technical difficulties.
This proved no bother to fans, who aired on the side of chill the whole night. Maybe the growing adult responsibilities of Millennials have weighed on them, or younger fans came just for the hits. Halliday even considered the effects of fast-passing the local dive bar scene from which the band's rowdiest crowds often stem. Or, perhaps, Trimble's understated stage presence, made up of subtle theatricality, bite-sized ad-libs, and minimal crowd engagement, was lacking in a city dominated by EDM drops and Bad Bunny verses.
The show resumed at 9:30 p.m., where classics like "Something Good Can Work" and "Changing of the Seasons" livened the crowd and rehashed every fan's heartbreaks in the funky, sarcastically veiled delivery TDCC is known for. Unsurprisingly, many titles off the band's latest work, Keep On Smiling, which leans heavily into the recent '80s synth-revival trend, failed to make the cut. The album garnered sharp criticism for straying from the band's sound in a manner more radio play-oriented than experimental, with Pitchfork considering it "as efficient and impersonal as a frozen yogurt shop on the street level of a mixed-use condo development."
Instead, the setlist read like a Two Door Cinema Club "eras tour." Fans raved to OG tracks like "Undercover Martyn," "Cigarettes In the Theatre," "Sun," and "Next Year" from the group's first two and most commercially successful albums, Tourist History and Beacon. An unexpected halftime serenade of "The World Is Watching" was a cheeky reminder of TDCC's often-forgotten ability to execute dreamy love songs. Singles from the lesser-known Gameshow and False Alarm saw little crowd support but were impressive displays of Trimble's apt range. The transition from the shrill falsettos of "Bad Decisions" to the ominously futuristic low ends of "Satellite" was akin to musical whiplash.
In keeping with tradition, the night culminated at 11 p.m. with a roaring rendition of "What You Know," a proud nod to the three-times platinum theme's iconic standing in the 2010s alternative genre. A unanimous voice erupted from the lawns and stands of FPL Solar Amphitheater as the simple yet effective, time-synced strobe lights on display throughout the performance underscored the song's most anthemic lines.
It's unsure whether Miami's Two Door Cinema Club diehards will keep the torch lit enough to warrant a future visit from the Irishmen. But after a decade-long drought, the band undoubtedly rekindled a nostalgic 2010s indie flame and brought a new spark to keep the Magic City alight.
Flipturn's Setlist at FPL Solar Amphitheater at Bayfront Park
- "Six Below"- "Burnout Days" (Unreleased)
- "Sad Disco"
- "Whales"
- "Juno" (Unreleased)
- "August"
- "Weepy Woman"
- "Savannah"
- "Playground"
Two Door Cinema Club's Setlist at FPL Solar Amphitheater at Bayfront Park
- "This Is the Life"- "I Can Talk"
- "Sleep Alone"
- "Something Good Can Work"
- "Sure Enough"
- "Are We Ready (Wreck)"
- "Changing of the Seasons"
- "Next Year"
- "Do You Want It All"
- "Costume Party"
- "Bad Decisions"
- "Satellite"
- "Come Back Home"
- "Handshake"
- "World Is Watching"
- "Lavender"
- "Eat That Up, It's Good For You"
- "Undercover Martyn"
- "Cigarettes in the Theatre"
- "Messenger AD" (Intro)
- "Sun"
- "What You Know"
