The Rapture @ XOYO

“My mum was from Bristol and she always told me British people were lovely. Until about five minutes ago I wasn’t sure, but you guys are amazing.”

When it comes to winning crowds over, flattery will get you everywhere – everywhere except the bar, but that’ll take 10 minutes regardless of who you are and what you say.

Then again, it’s not like this particular crowd ever needed to be won over. In a packed XOYO that boasted more black media glasses per square foot than your local Specsavers, The Rapture were rightly celebrated as cowbell-wielding, disco-punk kings from the outset.

This reaction tells you all you really need to know about the band and its fans. Record label arguments, line-up changes, a spell in the wilderness – it all becomes insignificant when you have the ability to pull a show like this out of the bag.

Those who have listened to the band’s latest LP, In the Grace of Your Love, may agree that it lacks the punch of previous efforts. Yet any lingering fears that this would somehow impact on the live show were quickly dashed as the set slipped effortlessly between the old and the new.

The disco shuffle of ‘Never Die Again’ slotted nicely between ‘Pieces of the People…’ and ‘Gotta Get Myself into It’, whilst even the wonderfully obscure ‘Come Back To Me’, with its accordion-heavy Parisian grooves, didn’t feel out of place.

Predictably it was that song and the often overlooked ‘Whoo! Alright! Yeah…Uh-Huh’ which garnered the greatest responses, but the new piano house cut ‘How Deep Is Your Love’ (not that one) also received a fair cheer – proving that early judgements of this song were perhaps a little off the mark.

The new album may be slightly wayward in places but, as this show proved, The Rapture are still more than capable of delivering pitch perfect disco-punk with the greatest of ease. It’s great to have them back.