Music
Review: Modern Baseball return with super fun show in Camden
American indie punks Modern Baseball make a triumphant return to the UK with their show at Camden’s Electric Ballroom.
It might have been a cold February night in London, but the temperature inside Electric Ballroom was rising in anticipation for Modern Baseball’s return to the UK.
A band that refuses to sink
After the band had to cancel a string of shows last year due to mental health, they promised they’d be back – and boy, are they back. The gig at Camden’s 1,100-capacity venue also leads up to the release of the quartet’s forthcoming third album, Holy Ghost. And old and new fans crammed shoulder to shoulder in a sold out Ballroom, everyone’s understandably thrilled to have the Philadelphia gang back on British soil. Supports Solemn Sun and Sorority Noise most certainly do the crowd and anticipation justice, and only fuel the fire under the simmering embers of excitement.
The set you’ve been waiting for featuring Modern Baseball
The band launch into the first two songs Fine, Great and Broken Cash Machine from their last album, You’re Gonna Miss It All with Brendan shouting “holy sh**!” half-way through the latter as the room goes completely insane with every single line soaring back at the band on stage. Modern Baseball fans don’t necessarily only have one or two favourite songs, the band could easily mix up the set as much as they want and the show would still be as much fun every time. Tonight we get treated to a welcome mix of old and new tracks, including Rock Bottom, Your Graduation, What If, Two Good Things and more. The most important part about this night is that the band seem to be having just as much fun as the crowd, and in the most genuine way. And what more could you ask for when you go to a show? The set closes with an intense version of The Weekend, a track on the band’s debut album Sports.
“Darling, you dropped your phone”
You can’t deny how great it is when a band interact with their fans to the degree that Modern Baseball always manage to. During fan favourite Tears Over Beers, vocalist Jake Ewald goes the extra mile to tell a girl in the front row that she’s dropped her phone. It’s pretty adorable. Even more adorable is his total dad joke about a koala trying to join a new group of friends at the zoo, only to be told he doesn’t have “the koalafications”.
Judging from what we’ve seen tonight, Modern Baseball are headed for a massive 2016. Plus, they’re back at Reading and Leeds festival this summer.
