Review: Bastille's 'Still Avoiding Tomorrow' Tour at London's Brixton Academy

This weekend saw London four-piece Bastille play two sold-out shows at Brixton Academy in their most experimental and creative tour to date. The ‘Pompeii’ hitmakers are currently taking the ‘Still Avoiding Tomorrow Tour’ around the world to prepare fans for the imminent drop of their third studio album Doom Days. Sunday night’s show marked the end of the UK leg of this tour and we were there to find out what went down.
 
One thing Bastille are known for is collaborations - whether that’s pairing up with the world’s biggest producers for their track ‘Happier’ with Marshmello (currently charting at #2 in the Billboard Top 100), or shining a spotlight on talented new artists like Moss Kena, who they teamed up with on their latest mixtape Other People’s Heartache, Pt. 4.

 
One of the perks of doing so many collaborations is being able to take these artists on tour with you – both as support acts, and as special guests to bring out during the main set, putting new twists on the old Bastille songs we know and love. Over the two nights at Brixton Academy Bastille were joined by long-time collaborator Rationale, their tour support acts Lewis Capaldi, Moss Kena and The Dawn Of May, as well as Seeb, who they recently collaborated with on the insanely catchy bop ‘Grip’. 
 
MTV PUSH: Ones to Watch 2019 winner Lewis Capaldi has been joining Bastille on tour and his support slot gave us hope for his bright future. The Capaldi wave is peaking right now as he battles it out with Ariana Grande for the number one spot in the UK Top 40 with his song ‘Somebody You Loved’. Not only is he absolutely hilarious with his strong Glaswegian accent and outright potty mouth, his personal brand of self-deprecation mixed with some of THE SADDEST SONGS WE’VE EVER HEARD meant Lewis’ performance stuck with us long after his set ended.

‘Still Avoiding Tomorrow’ is a line from Bastille’s track ‘Quarter Past Midnight’, but the whole idea runs deeper with the tour’s overall production reflecting this. The show begins with a digital clock at 23:59 and the band’s frontman Dan Smith performing their cover of Cat Stevens’ ‘Wild World’, just him and a piano. The ‘Still Avoiding Tomorrow’ sentiment runs throughout the entire set, encapsulating how we’ve all felt when you’re out with your closest friends and you don’t want the night to end. 
 
Smith has previously described their forthcoming album Doom Days as a ‘post-apocalyptic party record’ and we got a glimpse of this as he debuted new song ‘4am’ while slumped on a revolving sofa with DOOM DAYS branded on the back. If ‘Quarter Past Midnight’ is the peak of a night out, then ‘4am’ is the chillout when everyone starts to think about finally bringing the night to a close and heading home.

 

As they approach their 10-year anniversary as a band, the ‘Still Avoiding Tomorrow Tour’ set list is every fan’s dream. Not only did they perform first album classics such as ‘Pompeii’ and ‘Laura Palmer’, they treated us to fan favourites they rarely perform live such as ‘Daniel In The Den’, followed by one of their newest tracks ‘The Descent’ from their latest mixtape Other People’s Heartache, Pt. 4. 

The greatest hits style setlist paired with the more intimate venues they’ve chosen to perform in has given this whole tour that special edge, and we can’t wait to see what the rest of 2019 brings for the band. As pessimistic as it sounds, if this is the end of days (Smith often sings about the state of the world with leaders such as Donald Trump) we want to be in Bastille’s bunker, dancing to their anthemic stadium bangers until the bitter end.

 
SETLIST

Wild World
Quarter Past Midnight
Send Them Off!
I Know You
Things We Lost In The Fire
The Currents
Grip (with Seeb)
Warmth
Blame
4am
World Gone Mad (with The Dawn Of May)
Fake It
Bad Blood (with Lewis Capaldi)
Two Evils
Daniel In The Den
The Descent
Pompeii
Good Grief
Laura Palmer
Of The Night
Warmth (Outro)
 
ENCORE

Happier
Flaws

WATCH BASTILLE AND MARSHMELLO PERFORM HAPPIER' AT THE 2018 MTV EMA HERE: