‘How Good It Was’…A thrilling performance last night from the Courteeners, leaving their audience at the O2 Academy in Leicester overwhelmed with post-gig blues, and a lot of beer in their hair.
The Courteeners are an English band who have taken over the indie-rock music scene by storm since 2006. This energetic and popular band is comprised by lead singer and guitarist Liam Fray, drummer Michael Campbell, bass player Joe Cross and Adam Payne on the keyboard and backing vocals.
The four master musicians from the north did their fifth gig pit-stop last night as part of their UK Winter 2018 tour, and of course, they delivered an exceptionally energetic performance, giving all the indie-rock gig-goers of the East-Midlands another gig to remember. 
Singer-songwriter and acoustic guitarist Gerry Cinnamon warmed up the crowd with an authentic performance. His natural stage presence, crowd interaction and brutally honest lyrics sent many pints of Pilsner up in the air and over the crowd’s heads. You’d be glad to be standing on the upper tier at this point, but not even that might’ve kept you dry.
It wasn’t long until the Courteeners arrived on stage, opening with ‘Are You In Love With A Notion’; a song telling of a girl to quit her job at Debenhams and elope into the sun. Strange. But, this injected mass-energy into the rather small venue. The song was the perfect start to instigating a harmonious crowd who all delivered a rather ‘belt out’ sing along to the chorus “Why are you so in love with the notion / it doesn’t do you any good at all”.
Following this, fitting to the high-energy levels, they performed ‘Cavorting’ from their St Jude album.
10 years on since the Independent reviewed their debut album St Jude and stated, “I confidently predict that exactly no one will be listening to it in 10 years’ time”, they have become one of the biggest indie-rock bands in the country with the likes of the Arctic Monkeys, not to mention their 2018 winter UK tour selling out in just one day. Not surprising considering everyone in the crowd sang along to every lyric in the album at their fifth gig of the tour last night.
After releasing Mapping the Rendezvous in 2016, with the first single on the album ‘The 17th’ captivating the hearts of many more fans worldwide, they experienced some of the biggest audiences in their music careers. This led to them doing a European tour, performing at venues in England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland and France. Not to mention, their biggest sold-out show at the Emirates Old Trafford Stadium in Manchester, as well as at Glastonbury and Reading Festival. Closing with ‘The 17th’ only accentuated the popularity of the single, with everyone inside the venue knowing every lyric. Alongside this, they played other songs on the album ‘No One Will Ever Replace Us’ and ‘Modern Love.’
This led to more drink throwing and moshing.
Now, we all know that most bands do that cliché ‘walk off the stage as if the gig is over’ exit, leaving the audience in suspense wanting more, to only come back with an even better encore. Of course, it was expected the Courteeners would do the same, and they did. Although, as if one encore wasn’t enough. They did two. These comprised of some old and new songs, including ‘Smiths Disco’, ‘Heavy Jacket’ and arguably, their most popular song ‘Not Nineteen Forever’.
The encores electrified the venue, heightening the audience into such high spirits, you couldn’t help but join in with the full of life atmosphere. A fitting mood for fans to exit too, stumbling into a taxi home.
Courteeners, ‘No you didn’t, No you don’t’ EVER disappoint.