Don Broco + Light You Up + Little Faith @ The Institute Temple, 12 August 2015
With sophomore album Automatic released last week, Don Broco have returned to stages that at this point in their career would be considered intimate for the band, performing tonight to a sold out 300 cap The Temple in Digbeth.
Openers Little Faith and local lads Light You Up both do a good job of warming the crowd up; with this being only Little Faith’s third ever show. Light You Up are well received tonight with a surprisingly large proportion of the crowd singing along, which is presumably due to their local ties.
It’s obvious though that everyone is here for tonight’s headliners, pop rockers Don Broco. With tickets for this tour being available to those that had pre-ordered new album Automatic it’s clear that everyone here this evening are what would be considered the die-hards. From Reading festival main-stage to Alexandra Palace and a Brixton date in place for later in the year, tonight is a rare opportunity to see the band in such an intimate setting.
Opening with Money Power Fame it’s clear that the band are bringing all the energy you would come to expect from a Don Broco show and not leaving anything behind in the bigger rooms. From synchronised dance routines to a push up squad appearance during fan favourite Thug Workout, it’s as a fun a show as ever.
Tonight’s gold star goes to bassist Tom Doyle, who is seemingly beaming with enjoyment whilst playing his parts with exact precision. It should be noted that there is points within tonight’s set that the sound is seemingly muddled with the vocals not hitting as hard as they could, but a tight performance none the less.
Performing a mixture of material from both Automatic and debut Priorities, it’s clear that fans have no favourites in terms of albums, with both receiving the same warm reception. In terms of new tracks Superlove, Automatic and You Wanna Know are seemingly the strongest whilst Whole Truth gets the warmest reception of the evening along with Priorities.
It should be noticed that the evening was probably one of the hottest The Temple has witnessed, with crowd movement coupled with a sold out room leading to a very sweaty set. The energy from both the band and fans never let up, with Rob Damiani making sure everyone was happy and having a good time at all times.
Noting that Birmingham was one of their favourite cities, they reminisced of their first show here supporting Deaf Havana at Eddie’s Rock Club, which highlights not only the lengths that the band have come but also the state of British rock as a whole.
In my opinion now is the time for Don Broco to really be embraced in the mainstream, with a Top 5 album being predicted this week and the aforementioned Brixton show. And boy do they deserve every ounce of success.
Setlist:
Money Power Fame
Yeah Man
Superlove
Whole Truth
Hold On
What You Do To Me
Fire
Priorities
Nerve
Thug Workout
Automatic
Fancy Dress
Actors
You Wanna Know
Review: Dan Earl
Photographs: Dave Musson (from the Kerrang! Tour, February 2015)