Tokyo Police Club _ Two Door Cinema Club Review

Monday night The Met played host to two of indie rock's brightest up-and-comers from outside of the States; the U.K.'s Two Door Cinema Club and Ontario's Tokyo Police Club. While TPC has had somewhat decent success here over the past few years, Two Door is just starting to get their feet in the door.
The double-Club bill set Two Door Cinema Club onstage first. Their performance was very lively yet relatively quick due to the lack of conversing with the crowd on the band's part. Having only released one full-length album, last year's Tourist History, the setlist for the show was pretty well known throughout the small club; the highlight being a young boy of probably middle school-age singing along to every lyric. In fact, all ten tracks from the album were played. As it does on the album, "Cigarettes in the Theatre" kicked off the performance, setting the tone of the band's dancey electro-pop/indie rock sound.
Dancing consistently took place in the center of the venue with fans bobbing up and down, and some off to the sides where the more spacious areas allowed for a select few to be more animated in their movements. The band was able to capture their recorded sound spot-on; lead vocalist/guitarist Alex Trimble sounded solid belting out the lyrics. White strobe lights carried on throughout the set but reached a seizure-inducing state during the impossible-not-to-dance-along-to "You're Not Stubborn"; during which Kevin Baird switched from playing bass, which he had been all show until this point, to the synths.
During a break in songs, Baird informed the crowd of the band's appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon the next night, to which Trimble quipped, "We're pretty big time right now."
Given the opportunity to play to a crowd so far from home, the band tested out some new tracks; "Handshake", "Kids", and "Costume Party", all receiving just as much of an enthusiastic reception as the prior-known songs. The set was tight and overall just as commanding and powerful of a performance as if they were the headliners.
The crowd, which was still beaming from the energetic set of Two Door Cinema Club and waiting in anticipation for Tokyo Police Club, were treated to, or maybe more appropriately, tormented by seven playings of Tom Jones' "What's New Pussycat?" over the speakers. Arguably Jones' biggest hit, "It's Not Unusual", did slip in once during the

$streak. By the time Tokyo Police Club hit the stage the crowd was very appreciative to hear something else. As the band emerged, lead vocalist and bassist Dave Monks leaned into the mic with a beer in his raised hand, jokingly asking, "What's new, pussycat?" Despite not having the largest discography, two LPS and two EPs, as an indication of their still youthful four year existence, the band managed to cover tracks from all of their efforts. The set began with "Favourite Colour", off of last year's Champ. The first couple of songs didn't receive too much response from the crowd until the setlist tapped into the band's debut full-length, 2008's Elephant Shell, with the track "Graves", during which a lot of dancing broke out throughout the venue. Though it isn't necessarily a huge surprise for a band to play material off of their EP releases, it is a little strange when the same amount of songs off of one EP are played as there are off of a full-length album. This was exactly the case as TPC hit up A Lesson in Crime, their 2006 EP, four times throughout the set, much to their fans' delight. The tracks "Cheer It On" and "Citizens of Tomorrow" seemed to be crowd favorites. While Monks and keyboardist Graham Wright played the more lively half of the band, dancing and moving all over the stage, guitarist Josh Hook and drummer Greg Alsop remained poised and considerably focused all through the set. Show-ender "Your English Is Good" provoked the most dancing the show had seen that night. As Monks thanked the crowd for attending and the band had exited the stage, so emptied out the club. However, with a good fraction of the crowd having already exited the room and a few minutes after the end of Tokyo Police Club's set, all the members of both baths re-emerged on the stage. Monks commented to the crowd, "Welcome to the late show!" The collective group performed a one-song set made up of a solid cover of The Strokes' hit "Last Nite" Both young bands displayed their legitimacy as up-and-comers during their sets; carrying out just as strong of a sound in-concert as on record. Each band delivers a show that is certain to not leave a ticket-buyer disappointed and hopefully their youthfulness signifies that we've only seen the beginning of their quite possibly fruitful careers.$