Bastille - Olympia, Dublin

Speaking to the Irish Examiner months ago, Bastille’s Dan Smith criticised the personalised media backlash against his band. What bothered him was the tittering about his Tintin quiff.

“We have received some horrible shit. We, as a band, never received any support from the press. It’s just so depressingly predictable that the broadsheet press would kick-back with some very personal responses. It sucks, to be honest.”

Six months on, Smith is having the final chuckle. His hair remains defiantly spiky, but, with the single ‘Pompeii’ on course to be one of the year’s biggest smashes, nobody is laughing anymore. Disdained by the critics, snubbed by the Mercury Music Prize, the London quartet are British rock’s brightest prospects. Who would bet against them headlining arenas? With the Olympia heaving, there was a palpable excitement as the strains of the Twin Peaks soundtrack announced Bastille’s arrival (Smith is an obsessive David Lynch fan). Bastille have only one album, so a little padding is inevitable. Fortunately, there’s no filler in their songbook, and even their ‘minor’ compositions are worth your attention. As Smith alternately roamed the stage and manned a keyboard, Bastille opened with the ennui-soaked one-two of ‘Bad Blood’ and ‘Things We Lost In The Fire’, sonorous ballads that suggest early Coldplay, with a dramatic infusion of melancholy.

From there it’s a long journey to the encore and the inevitable rendition of ‘Pompeii’. An extended edition of their LP, Bad Blood, is due for Christmas and the several tunes newly written for that record suggest that, as sensitive emoter for the masses, Smith may only be getting started.

Amidst all the intensity, Bastille have a playful side, and Smith revelled in the love as the group romped through a cheeky mash-up of Snap’s ‘Rhythm is a Dancer’ and Corona’s ‘Rhythm of the Night’. And then, at last, it was time for ‘Pompeii’, three and a half minutes of gloriously over-the-top anthemic rock that is gushing and catchy. We haven’t heard the last of Smith and Co.