putting the good in good neighbours

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)

After attending a Good Neighbours show last May, my immediate thought was ‘Wow, what a great show, I can’t wait for them to tour again and at a bigger venue’. As if the band had access to a crystal ball, fast forward nine months and on a cold and dreary February night at Birmingham's O2 Institute, Good Neighbours delivered an excellent, high energy, summer ready show that helped me, and surely everyone else in the venue, forget the awful conditions outside.

Disappointed at missing the opening set from Fletchr Fletchr due to the excellent time keeping that is the midlands rail network during half term, the disappointment subsided greatly as I arrived in time to witness the majority of British band Master Peace’s warm up set. The set was filled with high energy and a sound that was reminiscent of the late 2000’s early 2010’s era of indie pop which if the rest of the night was anything to go by, is an indication of where the British music scene is heading back to.

Despite my unfamiliarity with Peace ‘Master Peace’ Okezie, he managed to get me and everyone in the crowd on his side by delivering a series of songs that were reminiscent of The Streets. To really get the crowd going, the short set was laid with relatable anecdotes around what inspired the songs and brilliant crowd interactions that included a crowd sit down and encouraging the crowd to sing the main chorus of ‘Home’ like a football chant. In short, Master Peace seemed to be the perfect appetiser for the headline acts.

Bouncing onto the stage, Good Neighbours emerged from the shadows to a heavily backlit stage, creating silhouettes of the band, including lead singer Oli Fox’s iconic single drum and tambourine combo. Striking the drum to create a bass pounding introduction, Good Neighbours began their show with ‘Suburbs' which set the precedent for the night.

Continuing the night with a cornucopia of songs from their debut album Blue Sky Mentality, including ‘Skipping Stones’, ‘Ripple’, ‘Bloom’, ‘Starry Eyed’ and the second crowd sit down of the night for ‘People’ which continued the good vibes of the evening. Pausing at a couple of interludes to thank the crowd for coming out on a dreary, cold and wet Monday night, the band succeeded in making it feel like a warm Friday night in the height of summer. Around halfway through the set came the only sad song on their album in the form of ‘The Buzz’ which in itself, still resonates with their iconic sound.

Acting as the catalyst that propelled the show to its stellar finale was ‘Smalltown’ - which is my personal favourite Good Neighbours song and is incredible live - followed by ‘Wonderful Life’ and ‘Kids Can’t Sleep’. For ‘Keep It Up’, Oli got everyone clapping in time for some great audience interaction - with mixed results due to some audience members lack of timing, before being literally floored (sitting down in awe) at the audience singing the chorus of ‘Home’ back to the band before they even performed it. Rounding out the evening with a roaring encore with their seminal hit Daisies, all the boyfriends who had been dragged along (in Oli’s own words) would have surely had their spirits lifted in recognising the song from a FIFA soundtrack a few years ago.

In all, it was an incredibly joyous show, that the charismatic frontman and high energy indie pop rock sound akin to Empire Of The Sun, MGMT, Vampire Weekend and others cut from the same indie rock band cloth, made it impossible to not have a good time.

To put it bluntly and quite cheese-ily, their music feels like the soundtrack to a montage of my upcoming summer memories and I hope that they will be for many many others. I left the gig with the same sentiment as last year of wanting to see them again, on another tour, in another big gig venue. Considering I got my wish last time, here’s to hoping there’s another show from the band that put the good in Good Neighbours on the horizon.