Coasts – KOKO, Camden 10/06/15

Earlier this month we went down to KOKO in Camden to check out Coasts with Bad Suns and New Motion on their UK tour.

It was my second time seeing Coasts but my first time seeing both New Motion and Bad Suns. New Motion (6/10) have mastered their very typical but successful indie, almost reminiscent of The 1975 in some songs. Due to the pace of some of the songs the audience would lose focus of the band, but improvements to their set list and having a greater back catalogue from which to choose songs from will come along with time and more touring. However despite this I did like their set and it will be good to see how they improve with more recording and touring.

I’ve been a massive fan of Bad Suns (9/10) since finding them through them supporting The 1975 on a US tour, it was my first opportunity to see them and I was pretty excited. As someone who knows the majority of their album and the words to it, I was in heaven whereas the crowd enjoyed them but unlike myself didn’t know most of their material beyond big hits such as Salt and Cardiac Arrest. Their set had a good mix of both more popular heavy-hitters from the album and some great tracks that might have missed people’s attention such as Take My Love and Run, We Move Like The Ocean and Dancing On Quicksand. It was a shame that the crowd weren’t overly into Bad Suns but I’d say that’s more down to not knowing their songs rather than not liking their music as majority of the crowd was dancing along and enjoying themselves.

The crowd had been thoroughly warmed up and finally the band they had been waiting all night long for entered the stage. Coasts (8/10), who have been championed by BBC Radio 1 and Made In Chelsea, have almost unexpectedly sold out their KOKO show despite only having few EPs and singles. Despite this they have accumulated a loyal fan base who will clearly be here till the end for Coasts, it now seems like London’s Shepherds Bush Empire and 02 Academy Brixton are no longer in the far distance for the band.

The crowd is full of indie twenty-somethings but that doesn’t stop the frantic dancing and screaming. I admittedly didn’t know many of their songs but they were all feel-good indie tunes and I can predict them being a very popular band with this summer’s oncoming festivals. Beyond the songs I did know such as A Rush of Blood and Oceans, the rest of their songs just merged together a bit for me this is most likely down to me not being familiar with the songs rather than a judge of the band themselves. Coasts are a band that some would complain are boring or bland but others would say are just going to get bigger and bigger and I agree with the latter.