Two Door Cinema Club and Flipturn Kick Off Two Nights in the Big Apple [Photos]

Irish indie-pop giants Two Door Cinema Club stopped at The Rooftop at Pier 17 for two sold-out nights of music in the midst of their summer tour with special guests flipturn on July 23rd. The former is a longtime staple in the genre, and the latter is a relatively new and rising name in the scene. The pairing made for a perfect summer evening on the rooftop.

Following a week of gloomy and rainy weather in the northeast corner of the United States, concertgoers were thrilled to see the sun beginning to peek through the clouds despite a light sprinkling just before flipturn took the stage at 7 pm sharp. The band made their debut in 2015 and their hard work has paid off greatly in recent years. They have grown from playing New York’s Bowery Ballroom to headlining (and selling out) the much larger Brooklyn Steel in under two years. The high school-buddies-turned-bandmates brought an opening set to the rooftop that was well worthy of a headlining bill.

Singer Dillon Basse, guitarist Tristan Duncan, bassist Madeline Jarman, keyboardist Mitch Fountain, and drummer Devon VonBalson engaged an attentive audience with songs from their catalogue. They played “Sad Disco,” “Whales,” “Juno,” and the track that largely spearheaded their rise in popularity, “August.”

Known for their energetic and captivating live performance, VonBalson took interactivity to the extreme for “Savannah.” He disassembled part of his drum kit and handed the pieces to fans in the front row to create a human drum kit. By the time the band closed with “Space Cowboy,” the rooftop was warmed up and ready for the night’s headliner.

Two Door Cinema Club hailed to the stage right at 8 pm. They wasted no time in getting the party started. With a strict curfew to meet and nearly two decades’ worth of music, the trio of singer Alex Thimble, guitarist Sam Halliday, and bassist Kevin Baird powered through a behemoth of a setlist to pack in as much music as possible during their set. While their monster of a program for the evening left little time for chatter between songs, the band connected with their audience immediately. From the devoted fans in the front row belting every word to the couples in the back swaying and dancing the night away.

The 23-song-setlist leaned heavily on their 2010 debut record Tourist History. It featured ten songs from the album, including “Cigarettes in the Theatre,” “Something Good Can Work,” and “This Is The Life.” Just two songs into the set during “I Can Talk,” the sound suddenly went out on the band. It was no problem for their audience, who carried on singing the song for a verse until the band’s crew got things up and running again. Even so early into the performance, the moment was a true testament to the enthusiasm of Two Door Cinema Club’s faithful fans.

The set continued smoothly with selections from their discography, including “Sleep Alone” and “Sun” from 2012’s Beacon, “Are We Ready? (Wreck)” and “Lavender” off Gameshow, the tour debut of Keep On Smiling’s “Lucky,” and many more. Some highlights of the performance included Thimble’s impressive falsetto on “Bad Decisions” and audience clap-along for “The World Is Watching.”

Other highlights included the electric strobe show for “Undercover Martyn” and, of course, the closing number and smash hit “What You Know.” Whether fans were in attendance just for the night or planned to return the following day for round two, a sea of smiling faces and sweaty bodies departed the venue carrying a bit more magic than they walked in with.

Two Door Cinema Club and flipturn @ the Rooftop at Pier 17 (New York City, NY) on July 23, 2024

43 photos