Blossoms kick off their tour at Newcastle’s O2 City Hall
Written by Kai Palmer on 18th October 2024
A charming blend of nonchalance and whimsy: Blossoms’ 2024 tour kicks off at Newcastle’s O2 City Hall, supporting their new album, Gary.
The crowd’s energy tonight might surprise the band; pints in the air and crowds of mates ready for a shouty sing-a-long. Contrast this with the surrealist ’60s ballroom ensemble on stage and it’s touching that Blossoms can reach an audience beyond their own style. This is likely due to the pull of their hits such as Charlamagne, the catchy indie-rock hit that made them widely known.
One of Blossom’s great strengths is that they didn’t rejoice in the success of Charlamagne and then try to replicate it; they’ve been experimental and used their hits to lure fans in to their more obscure tracks.
As a result, tonight’s show presents us with five albums and almost 10 years of indie-rock-pop fluidity.
Kicking off with Your Girlfriend from 2020’s Foolish Loving Spaces means that that the mood is set to a quintessentially Blossoms-sounding track. Then, with “I’d forget you if I could / I know I probably should be sleeping”: 2018 track I Can’t Stand It brings in that hint of passive melancholia.
As the show moves on with Big Star and The Keeper, their performance is so flamboyant that it certainly feels more like a “show” than a typical gig as Ogden often pauses, expression inscrutable as he struts and freezes into various poses between singing.
It seems to be ever so slightly choreographed with Ogden’s casual modelling, as though ready to be sketched, before getting straight back into singing Perfect Me in a fittingly immaculate way. If you’ve seen any of their recent music videos, he’s in precise form and his consistency is admirable.
At one point, Ogden jokes, “You’ll have to forgive us, it’s our first night” after apparently fluffing part of a track. But it isn’t noticeable, they’ve rehearsed well.
As the frontman gets a little rowdier, screaming “I’VE GOT SOMETHING TO SAY…“ he abruptly jumps straight into If You Think This Is Real Life. This one gets the crowd loud for the title lyrics, and then a little quieter for the rest.
The band don’t overly indulge in audience interaction, whether that be due to shyness or their preference to interact with each other and let us gaze upon them. Ogden did break this custom to shout “I like your outfit!!” at a lucky person up in the balcony seats. He looked at the same spot a few times. Intentional gag or designated heckler for the night? He later mouths what looks like “it’s f*cking boiling” to her too.
Recognising the need to cool us down a bit, the band turn the lights down and illuminate the stage only with their new, neon “NIGHT DISCO”
Nightclub gets a few people bopping side-to-side in the expected fashion, however it’s almost as breezy as Perfect Me. It doesn’t quite live up to its namesake but it’s fun nonetheless.
I Like Your Look falls into their disco segment, and is one of the tracks that is most different from any of their previous releases, featuring a collab with I Don’t Really Care for You singer CMAT (Ciara Marry-Alice Thompson). It is closer to pop than anything Blossoms have released before and a world away from Charlamagne.
This track has been likened to Blondie’s 1981 masterpiece, Rapture. The influence is evident not only by its sound but in the slight choreographed strut across the stage; all of the band lightly dance-walk in a line, and in the Rapture music video, Debbie Harry is doing the same. It’s a nice attention to detail and surely a kind homage to Blondie from the band – they sang it excellently too.
Is this a sign of the band’s current direction? It does seem that the band are in the midst of exploring new sounds, and they’ve recently expressed that “the last thing” they want to do is repeat themselves. For their next release, they should be more ruthless and stray from their usual sound a little more.
It’s evident that they’re trying to elaborate: 7 out of 19 songs on the setlist are from Gary, an album which reaches back to their roots but bravely reaches into mild disco and indie-pop. To continue evolving, their next release should be more drastic and surprise us.
At Most a Kiss was among the high energy songs that had quite a few folk jumping before bring out “Gary”, who Ogden clarifies is actually a six foot gorilla and not eight foot, like the song suggests, so that they could fit it in the venue.
Following the obligatory encore which not even Blossoms have the courage to do away with, they sing, to no surprise, Gary.
Tonight’s show has been exactly what their new album is: sophisticated yet sillier than their previous work. It seems Blossoms are having a bit more fun with what they can do, and they deserve it.
Reaching the end with an acoustic performance of My Favourite Room, a breakup track which a surprising amount of people knew the words to. Not ones to dwell, Blossoms bow out spectacularly with There’s a Reason Why (I Never Returned Your Calls) and Charlamagne.