Circa Waves @ the Waterfront

Despite forming a mere two years ago, and having but one album under their belt, Thursday night in the fluorescent cellar-esque venue of the Waterfront saw Circa Waves match the performance of any well established indie-rock band.

After support from Clean Cut Kid and Rat Boy, Circa Waves opened with title track Young Chasers and were met by the cheers and woops of hundreds of worked up teens. Their set continued with an electric energy, both the band and the crowd clearly enjoying every moment, every sing along chorus and every catchy-as-hell guitar riff. Refreshingly raw, a sense of freedom diffused about the muggy room; now is the time to forget about the looming prospect of school or work tomorrow, to bounce to move and to fist pump with all the will in the world. Lost It oozed the drawling confidence of The Strokes, while Stuck In My Teeth was sugary and sun kissed and reminiscent of a track from The Maccabees Colour It In. The band even treated us to I Can Sleep Tonight, never before played live, which, with its punctuated intro and surfing bass line, went down a storm. Boyish, and stocked with lyrics about girls and summer and adolescence, for a moment it felt like mid July and not a chilly October evening. Circa Waves set was warmly comforting while also brimming with a sense of rebellion, and as their Kooks-like sound reverberates about the room, front man Kieran Shudall sings and smiles and shouts with contagious delight. As expected, Circa Waves finished with their most popular single, T Shirt Weather, after joking around about them not playing the song any more (which was met with a mix of laughter and raised eyebrows saying ‘really?? Just get on with it’) Yet despite their evident childish immaturity (I say, being younger than them), we couldn’t help but warm to their heartfelt cheer and they left stage beaming to their huge applause.

What Circa Waves lack in musical complexity, they make up for in a sparkling, unprocessed potency; refreshingly raw and simple, they manage to bypass the pit of arrogant indie cavaliers that not a few too many are precariously on the edge of. Both terrifyingly and wonderfully, they are a band that just doesn’t care what others will think- they play what they want inspired by who they want, and they do it because they downright love it. And we do too.