On March 9th, indie rock band Bad Suns brought their ‘Accelerator Tour’ to the Oude Zaal of the Melkweg, their first headline show in the Netherlands since 2019.
Opening the night is UK-based indie pop band SOAP. Treating us to a mix of released and unreleased music and an excellent cover of one of their musical inspirations, The Cure’s ‘Boys Don’t Cry’, the band manage to quickly capture the crowd’s attention with their cheerful and energetic performance. A drummer is often hidden away at the back of the stage, but SOAP’s drummer seems to almost beam off the stage from excitement. The same can be said for all band members, visibly happy to be there for their first time playing in Amsterdam. It is clear this band has been playing together for a good while, with a perfectly attuned and entertaining stage presence. Finishing their set with their latest single ‘Awkward now’, they sound at their best with 3 voices joining together.
As the crowd fills up, it is only a little wait until Bad Suns enters the stage. The indie rock band from California consists of Christo Bowman (vocals and guitar), Gavin Bennett (bass), and Miles Morris (drums). Opening their set with ‘Slow Karma’, accompanied by lots of electric guitar, the energy levels are immediately high, the crowd happily obliging to a “jump!” from the band.
The band is not very talkative, only sparing a few words in between, mostly jumping straight into other songs. The build-up of the show is smart, alternating between newer songs like ‘Life Was Easier When I Only Cared About Me’ and ‘Mystery Girl’, and then older songs like ‘Off She Goes’ and ‘Heartbreaker’ to have the crowd very engaged with no need for words in between, keeping the energy up for many songs in a row with cheerfully smiling fans all around.
Compared to studio versions, the live renditions of these songs have harsher instrumentals; the drums and electric guitar are much more prevalent. Making use of this, the band adds many extra instrumental breaks or longer outros, playing together perfectly and adding surprise to the songs everyone knows very well. At times, the instrumentals power over the vocals completely. This doesn’t seem to matter in the slightest to the many fans in the first few rows who sing along to every word.
The band does not make much contact with the crowd. At some point, the singer simply says “We got some music, and we are gonna play it”, and that’s exactly what they shall do. The band do loosen up slightly throughout the show, increasingly making contact with fellow band members and looking into the audience. Instrumental parts such as the one during ‘Baby Blue Shades’ is where we really see the band connect together at their best, and show their enjoyment a bit more outwardly. During ‘Back To Zero’, Bowman parts the crowd into two halves and then steps onto the floor to dance with everyone. This moment of connection is visibly enjoyed by the fans, everyone dancing their heart out and continuing this for the following songs.
Continuing the crowd engagement, 2016 release ‘Violet’ is sung in a slower rendition, with the singer repeatedly pointing the microphone to the crowd who sing along every word. The set is concluded with their two most popular songs: 2014 favourite ‘Cardiac Arrest’ and 2016 hit ‘Daft Pretty Boys’, with not a single crowd member left unmoving, everyone knowing the words by heart.
Before playing ‘Salt’, Bowman told the crowd he “knows it’s a Monday night, but for now, we can pretend that it is a Saturday night”. These words summarise the spirit of the show the best: an energetic Saturday night, with no distractions, only music and a good time. With little words, but continuous energy and a good mix of old and new, the band kept the crowd engaged and dancing along.
