Once past the hoards of under-age smokers at the entrance and age-wary bar staff within, The Dome erupts into the nights opening band, The Vaccines.

Their place on the bill doesn’t allow for the thrash’n’grunge that has become accustomed to the London outfits’ performance, but does affirm the scale of their current success. The front half of the room eagerly dancing and spilling lemonade on themselves as they stare up, bewildered, to the front-mans’ cry of “what did you expect, from post break-up sex?”For a band that has existed for such a short time, the set thrusts and winks its’ way through a body of sing-along tracks that state that we’ll be seeing them here again.

Next up are Everything Everything. Currently well and truly cemented on the Radio 1 play list, these four wailing ordinary boys broke out into the harmonious sonic electro that gained them a nomination for ‘Best New Band’ at this week’s Shockwaves NME Awards. The crowd fail to mirror Jonathan Higgs uncooperative vocals in the huge hits of ‘Photoshop Handsome’ and ‘MY KZ, UR BF’ but bellow back their love for the band. The group have got the hang of straddling the fence of having Muse-like professionalism and an ability to wear matching grey jumpsuits with panache.The kids dance as the parents whisper “I think I know this one…”

A large percentage of those here would not normally get the opportunity to witness the skull-shaking experience of ‘Magnetic Man’, co-managed by the success of British dubstep’s Benga, Skream and Artwork; there is a sense that it is this that the fresh-faced crowd have been waiting for. The trio do not disappoint, proving that bass-driven dance music can be enjoyed sober and before ten at night. However out of place three Mac laptops at front of stage may appear at an NME show, the sound shatters the packed space, as successfully as any riff or drum fill of years before. No wonder when asked “What music are you into?” people say “Uh… a bit of everyfing.”

But after a water break and a sense that the night should now be finished, headline act Crystal Castles take to the stage. The towering sounds of ‘Crimewave’ and ‘Intimate’, accompanied by an obscene lighting display and a barrage of industrially-layered angst assaulted the flailing crowd into submission; we had got one hell of a show for our money… however confusing.

NME Shockwaves Tour: Crystal Castles, Magnetic Man, Everything Everything, The Vaccines.
Brighton Dome
Thursday 17th February 2011

Words by Tom Sargeant
Photos by James Kendall