Fickle Friends’ no-frills playlist pop hits the spot in a live Birmingham show

Passing the yawning doorways to the larger, ‘concert hall’-style spaces within Birmingham’s O2 Institute, the steep approach to the third room on the top floor – concluding with the view of a looming, sparkling chandelier – was imbued with a strange tension. Perhaps mimicking the rising profile of indie-pop five-piece Fickle Friends, it begged the question: what lay beyond?

In truth, it was somewhat of a portal. Breaking from the building’s theatrical aesthetic, the room itself was a sweltering, cramped box replete with glitter-filled balloons, but this tropically humid experience framed the gig perfectly. On a mid-autumn night, it was festival season again.

The show was loaded with uppers and no downers

As may be expected from a band that seems a perennial favourite on Spotify’s curated pop playlists, the show was loaded with uppers and no downers. Tracks like ‘Say No More’ and ‘Cry Baby’ fizzled with energy, propelled by thunderous drums, featuring extended codas that lingered just long enough to keep momentum going. Even the one melancholic moment in the wistful neon-drenched ‘Paris’ was embellished by cymbal crashes and an amped-up bassline that made for one of the most exhilarating crescendos of the night.

The impact of some tracks was muted by the show’s stormy beginning, however. For example, the playfully slithering ‘Velvet’ felt incongruous at the tail-end of the set-list, as its not-quite- an-anthem, not-quite- a-slow- burner vibe sat modestly amongst the evening’s bombastic renditions, when in any other line-up it may have shone brighter.

Whilst there was little variation, the show remained undeniably engaging throughout, and this was testament to the utter slickness of the band’s performance dynamic. The sight of  a band so clearly well-rehearsed, yet able to perform the tracks with an organic spontaneity, all the while with no album yet to their name was a thrilling one. On ‘Hello Hello’, the effortless interplay between the searing synth line, soaring vocals and flittering high-hats was obviously in-the-moment, but more often than not the performances felt just as polished as the studio versions. Even the unreleased tracks performed here, ‘Rotation’ and especially ‘Wake Me Up’ felt just as necessary among the set-list as the band’s debut single ‘Swim’, performed with a call-and- response game with the audience, revealing the largely teenaged crowd’s seemingly encyclopaedic knowledge of the band’s lyrics.

Their winning brand of 80’s inflected dance-pop provides a shot of much-needed energy in times when art, and the world in general, are becoming increasingly preoccupied with gloom

Similarly, the most conventional ‘pop’ song on the list – the newly released Sia-tinged ‘Hard To Be Myself’ – could have fallen into the trap of Top 40 indulgence, but a charming and snappy performance allayed these fears. The lyrics talk of social anxiety at parties, but frontwoman Natti Shiner was effortlessly the life and soul of this one.

Ultimately, whilst it remains to be seen if they’ll fully break into the mainstream pop pantheon, it’s clear to see the appeal of Fickle Friends, and why they should have every chance of doing so: their winning brand of 80’s inflected dance-pop provides a shot of much-needed energy in times when art, and indeed the world in general, are becoming increasingly preoccupied with gloom. Living in a perpetual summer may not be to everyone’s liking, but the band has an undeniable talent for transporting their audience to it. At the very least, they’ll save you a fortune on air travel.