March 2014, NME Awards Tour, Manchester Academy: Circa Waves warm up the night (that will continue with Royal Blood, Temples and Interpol) with a 30 minutes set that almost gets unnoticed. I get there late, get to see half of their gig, but fuck it, I was only there for Temples. And no, Royal Blood were still nowhere near as famous as now.
October 2015, Circa Waves are back at the Academy: there's definitely more people than those ~50 fans that saw them 18 months ago, and I'm definitely here just for them, not even bothering to see the support bands (sorry!).
As I get into the venue, Sundara Karma are just ending their set, and apparently they've done a great job because I can feel the crowd is buzzing. While the staff gets the stage ready for the headliner of the night, I can hear people singing the Why took you so long chant, and then when they blast R U Mine? through the PA it's clear that it's gonna be a good night.
It's 9.30pm, the lights go down and the white flashing lights probably cause many epileptic seizures, I'm in awe already and I finish my beer right in time to see Circa Waves entering the stage.
They start with a loud bang: Young Chasers, my absolute favourite, Good For Me, and then So Long.
I'm already finding it hard to breath, and luckily they continue with the less upbeat 100 Strangers.
The crowd is very receptive (and very, very young); on the other side, Circa Waves own the stage with no problems, and it's hard not to notice that Sam (bass player) is much more confident than the early concerts. He's almost an additional frontman.
https://twitter.com/MxlesW/status/654474088438714370
The set goes on with Best Years (that has to be the next single because it's damn good), Lost It and Fossils, that gets one of the best reactions of the night.
Sam then unexpectedly takes the mic and talks briefly about a very important issue, that honestly I wasn't even aware of: he gives a shoutout to an organization called GirlsAgainst, that is basically five girls that got together to fight gig groping. I'm speechless because I seriously had no idea this was an issue - at least not to the point where someone decides to starts an organization to fight it - so I can just clap and cheer, because (as I later find out) sexual harrassment during gigs happens often, and it's just disgusting. So GirlsAgainst, you've got all of our support!
After this short break it's time to play Talking Out Loud, and then Kieran dedicates My Love to his mother, that's watching him from the stands.
The set ends with The Luck Has Gone, the very anticipated Stuck In My Teeth and Get Away (which I enjoy a lot because it's their first song I fell in love with)
As the band reaches the backstage, we're all shouting "T-Shirt Weather! T-Shirt Weather!".
We're pleased shortly after, just the time for them to come back, play 101 (which imho is better live than recorded), and then blast T-Shirt Weather, the summer hit that I still can't get out of my head.
(Minor disappointment: I was waiting for the confetti cannons, but they didn't use them this time)
https://twitter.com/MxlesW/status/654644282771570688
As I leave the Manchester Academy I fear that Kieran might sue me for stalking, since it's the 5th time I've seen them live.
And this is not a hipstery "I was there when they weren't famous", but more a sort of pride in seeing them grow, evolve, improve. Because this is what happened to them, they began as a one-man project in 2013, and two years later there's a packed Academy screaming their songs.
So, what more to say about them? They're amazingly good live, they have some catchy tunes, yet somehow haven't got the recognition that - for example - Royal Blood and Catfish and the Bottlemen are getting. (Not saying that those two bands are bad, I love them)
The only mistake they've done, in my opinion, was to release too many singles before the record, so when it came to listen to it, there was no anticipation: we had already heard all the best tracks, and there was just space left for quieter songs. Otherwise, Young Chasers would have gotten much more attention.
Anyway, I'm still in love with them, and let's hope that more people will start appreciating a band that's more than just T-Shirt Weather
