Bastille Plays An Exciting Show at The NorVa

Bastille have hit the road yet again for another whirlwind of a tour! Just coming off of their ‘Bad Blood X’ tour celebrating the tenth anniversary of their debut album, Bad Blood, they made time amidst their busy touring schedule opening for Duran Duran to stop and play a headline show in Norfolk, Virginia this past week. Fans were beyond excited, as it’s been six years since Bastille last played this city (and at the very same venue, too!) and the venue was packed full with so many excited faces!

The night started out great with Lobby Boy opening up the show! A semi-local band hailing from Richmond, their music and vibe instantly captured the crowd’s attention! The band’s enthusiasm to be performing that night seemed to resonate with the crowd, and it helped everyone loosen up and bop along to the songs! Their sound was a notable mix of fun, synthy music at the beginning of their set which then morphed into more intense, screamo-esce music at the end that got the audience amped up!

It was now time for Bastille to hit the stage! They started out their set strong with “Good Grief“, getting the crowd to jump around with them right off the bat! They then went straight into “WHAT YOU GONNA DO???“, which got the crowd hyped up even more with this head-banging rock song! Not only did lead singer Dan Smith don an electric guitar during this song, but backing guitarist Charlie Barnes came out to center stage and started absolutely shredding as the fans went wild! But he wasn’t the only fan favorite! In probably the best decision the band’s ever made, they’ve brought fellow British singer BIM back on tour with them to add her own incredible vocals as a perfect accompaniment to the set, and she stole the show during their performance of “No Angels“!

Bastille played a perfect mixture of both old and new songs, giving everyone in the audience that night an exciting surprise every time they moved on to the next song! And they weren’t afraid to stray away from the typical songs you’d expect, pulling some older singles such as “World Gone Mad” and doing a stripped-down version of “Flaws“. But they still played all the fan favorites! During “Happier“, Dan went out into the crowd and was able to get all the way through the crowd to sing along with the people in the back of the pit, and even up in the balcony. And, of course, they closed out the night with an electric performance of “Shut Off The Lights” and “Pompeii“; there were smiles all around as the crowd sang their hearts out and jumped and danced all over the place!

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