Live Review: Bombay Bicycle Club – South Facing Festival – Crystal Palace Park

Growing up hearing stories of all the legends who’ve played the Crystal Palace park over the years, it never made sense to me why the music stopped – Leaving the famous Crystal Palace Bowl to fall into disrepair. Thankfully the South Facing Festival concert series has (for a second year running) come to bring live music back to the site. I had to head down and catch one of the sets, here’s what went down when Bombay Bicycle Club took over the park.

Opening the night as the sun set was Nilüfer Yanya, whose genre blending funky indie rock sound bounced gracefully around the natural amphitheater created at the Crystal Palace bowl. The set received lots of applause from those who managed to turn up early. As the crowd continued to pour into the event, Jordan Rakei took to the stage. He played through hit after hit to much cheer from the audience. The funky bassline from his set ricocheted around the site.

Bombay Bicycle Club opened their set with ‘Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing but You)’ before going into ‘Is It Real’. The crowd went off right from the get go. Bouncing, dancing, and singing throughout. The set was full of classics ranging from the band’s whole discography.

Declaring that you “Throw away picnic blankets”, Bombay Bicycle Club went into their 2009 classic ‘Evening/Morning’. It’s punching bass piercing through the night. Their live sets really bring their older songs to life in my opinion. The band then transitioned from one of their oldest tracks to their newest with the – as yet unreleased – ‘I Want To Be Your Only Pet’. Despite the song not being released, it went down well with the fans in attendance.

In a little surprise towards the end of the set, the band chose to play a cover of Selena Gomez’ ‘Lose You to Love Me’, which went down well with the fans watching who danced every moment away. The set came to an end on a high with ‘Carry On’, however there was still energy left to give so the band couldn’t slip away yet. Coming out to play a one song encore of just ‘Always Like This’ was the perfect way to send the punters off into the night. The crowd really went off with this one giving it their last shot of energy.

With a new stage being built on the famous Rusty Laptop at the Crystal Palace Bowl, and the renewed interest brought to the site from music festivals such as South Facing and Wireless the future for live music in the park is finally looking alive again. Which is great to see. Bombay Bicycle Club showed that their early 2000’s Indie rock is very much still alive, giving new vigor to their songs over the album versions with their punchier live sound.