Source: Promo Image / Andrew Swartz
In preparation of their sets at this year’s Reading & Leeds festivals, Citizen played a handful of sideshows across the UK, featuring a stop at London’s tiny lounge bar The Lexington. With the venue’s humble capacity of 200, it gave fans the opportunity to catch the band in an intimate setting, a strong contrast to the mammoth crowds of Reading & Leeds.
Support act Big Jesus have been a busy bunch on their first trip overseas, with a jam-packed tour schedule supporting pop-punk heavyweights Good Charlotte across Europe & UK as well as supporting Citizen in the UK followed by a handful of free UK headline shows. Fueled by heavy, sludgy guitars intertwined with soft vocals; Big Jesus boast a unique alternative rock sound that will surely turn heads.
Having found that balance between progressive instrumentals and ethereal, almost indie undertones has added a certain layer of complexity that may not necessarily translate as well on record as it does in a live setting. Evidently, a very talented live band, the four piece’s performance overshadows any recorded tracks we had previously heard. This is a band you need to see live to truly appreciate. Never shying away from the opportunity to show off their talents, riffs were aplenty throughout the Atlanta band’s 30-minute set. In short, we’re keeping our eyes on Big Jesus and you should too.
It didn’t take long before Citizen emerged from the crowd watching their impressive support and proceeded to step on stage to deliver an equally brilliant show. Boasting a slightly different line-up on this run, drummer Jake Duhaime was absent as he remained back home for a wedding, with none other than Title Fight‘s Ben Russin filling in on this run. Any innocent bystander would not even notice that Russin had only learned the drum parts specifically for this tour.
Usually, going to see the Michigan/ Ohio band will mean a plethora of energy, with fans oftentimes erupting into an immediate mosh or clambering on stage from the get go. However, unlike most of the band’s gigs, the London crowd that night was probably the most composed you will ever encounter at a Citizen show. It seemed that most were more interested in passionate sing-alongs accompanied by vigorous head-bopping. Perhaps everyone was saving their energy for Reading.
Delivering an equal mix of tracks from the stunning 2015 release Everybody Is Going To Heaven and the pop-punk driven debut Youth, the band showcased an impassioned performance that only provided their highly emotive tracks the perfect opportunity to shine. Vocalist Mat Kerekes sings with a rawness that only further highlights the lyrics that had already tugged at your heartstrings in the first place; as made piercingly clear in tracks like ‘The Night You Drove Alone’ and “that song you like off the new record” ‘Yellow Love’.
Even in a more mellow setting than the band are probably used to, the strong sense of community was not lost. The quintet have a way of projecting tracks far beyond the limiting venue walls; never short of an impassioned, powerful delivery. Having been vocal about the fact that they won’t be around forever, Citizen are a brilliant live band that ought not to be missed, while we still have the chance.
