#sam halliday

[totallyroki]

reaction images: two door cinema club edition

[flukemannn]

Two Door Cinema Club at Wollongong, on Canon IUXS 8015

[tdccperu]

MERRY CHRISTMAS

[thebowerypresents]

Two Door Cinema Club – Racket – February 28, 2024

Back in New York City for the first time in several years, Irish synth-pop band Two Door Cinema Club were in fine form at a sold-out Terminal 5 on Thursday night.

Photos courtesy of Michelle Paradis | @michelleparadis_

[noelitede]

Sam Halliday in Undercover Martyn

[theadamantium]

Northern Irish indie band, Two Door Cinema Club, join us on this episode of The Adamantium Podcast. We discuss their latest album, False Alarm, it’s aesthetic, and the making of their hilarious music videos. We talk extensively about the music scene in Ireland and the amazing success of bands from their hometown of Bangor. We also chat about their most surreal ‘pinch me’ moments of their career so far, meeting the royals, behind the scenes of performing on late night talk shows, watching back old videos of their teenage gigs, and being hand picked by iconic film director, Danny Boyle, to sing at the opening ceremonies of the summer Olympics.

[prisonersofthesun]

[930club]

ALBUM REVIEW: Two Door Cinema Club - False Alarm

Two Door Cinema Club’s latest release, False Alarm, arrived on Friday, June 21 following four new singles over the past four months. The Irish three-piece, comprised of vocalist Alex Trimble, lead guitarist Sam Halliday, and bassist Kevin Baird, was founded in 2007 and has become an indie mainstay with its trademark sound of danceable alternative rock. The recognizable guitar hook of their breakout single, “What You Know,” feels today as satisfying and infectious as ever.

Since the release of their debut album, Tourist History, in 2011, however, the band has been navigating toward a blissfully hard-hitting electronic sound, aided by Irish producer Garret “Jacknife” Lee, who has worked with comparable pop-rockers such as The Killers and Bloc Party. Lee continued his work with Two Door Cinema Club on False Alarm. Whereas Halliday’s cyclical guitar licks define much of the band’s earlier music, False Alarm opts for more synth-heavy production.

This production style feels like a natural continuation of the band’s 2016 release, Gameshow, which saw them leaning in to more synth-driven work and ‘80s disco influences. (A high point of Gameshow is “Je Viens De La,” one of their most unabashedly disco songs.) The funky sound that the band embraced then has been further developed here.

The album visuals are pleasingly kitsch; the three band members’ torsos emerge out of circular holes in a solid blue backdrop, like a bizarre game of whack-a-mole. Symbols of urgency and emergency surround them — phones, clocks, fire alarms, and megaphones blast the band with noise. There is something robotic about the band’s posture, and it is reflected in the songs themselves.

Futuristic, digital sound sets the tone for many of these songs, as with “So Many People,” in which wobbly, otherworldly synth lines abound. The group chants a promise of happiness in “Satisfaction Guarantee” (“Heaven, bliss awaits!”), which comes across like a strange jingle. The entire bridge of “Satellite” is spoken by a pitched-down voice that sounds beamed in from another galaxy.

It’s difficult to distill themes from the abstract lyricism, but “Dirty Air” is the moment on the album with the clearest sense of the alarm indicated in the title. It evokes the stress of urban life (“I gave myself to the city / I wanna breathe dirty air”) and is vaguely apocalyptic: “The sky is falling, so pull up a chair / Everyone’s watching like nobody cares.” To what, exactly, is Trimble referring? Climate change? Apathy in the face of “dirty air” is definitely a pressing issue. He seems to be singing from the brink of disaster, but he still asks you to dance along.

Above all, False Alarm seems to be a response to an onslaught of noise. Maybe the noise is a sort of digital cacophony. On “Already Gone,” Trimble sings, “I played the dial tone to change your mind / I host the information in the skies,” describing a human relationship in technological terms. Gameshow explored similar themes. Its track “Bad Decisions” contains the lyric “Lately I think I’ve had enough of generation information every station,” referencing a mental overload caused by the digital world.

Whatever the case, their response to all this noise is a sound of their own, with some of their most precise and impressive performances yet. Tight, calculated verses slide effortlessly into expansive and soaring choruses with earworm hooks, charged with the constant energy that is typical of Two Door Cinema Club.

Not every song follows this format, however; the syrupy, R&B-influenced “Think” takes its time. “Break” is also a slower moment and the most introspective point on the album, containing its most vulnerable lyricism. (It’s still too broad to be truly revealing, but the atmosphere it creates is tender.) Moments like these add space to what is otherwise a punchy and forceful display of funky electronic rock.

False Alarm sounds unmistakably like Two Door Cinema Club while also rushing the band into a digitized, pop-oriented future. The band’s enticing message is clear in the chorus of “Satellite”: “We’re going places / You’re coming with us.”

- Siena Ballotta Garman

Two Door Cinema Club plays 9:30 Club on Tuesday, September 10 - tickets available here.