It’s not a stretch to say that Ireland’s collective musical output has been enjoying something of a purple patch as of late.
On the one hand, you’ve got Inhaler, beloved of Reading Festival main stages, Spotify playlists, and U2 fans the world over. On the other, you’ve got Fontaines D.C. – a rip-roaring babble of rabble-rousers, and a band whose recent run of form makes your average over-achiever look like little more than a pencil-eating ASBO-in-waiting.
And then you’ve got The Academic.
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If you’re unfamiliar, The Academic are an Irish indie-rock band – and if you ask us, they might just be the best of the bunch.
We’ve always thought that their catchy-as-hell choruses were custom-built to be screamed back to them by a roaring crowd of eager-as-hell twenty-somethings – and that their sold-out show at London’s Electric Brixton, they didn’t take long to prove us right.
From the moment the band took to the stage and launched into the infectious indie-pop stomper that they affectionately title ‘Why Can’t We Be Friends’, it was pretty clear that this was set to be a special night. It didn’t take long for the crowd – many of whom recent converts after the Irishmen’s stint supporting former One Direction superstar (and Doncaster enthusiast) Louis Tomlinson on his sold-out arena tour – to start bellowing back every word, and then it took even less time for the floor of the venue to start shaking as the crowd leapt like their lives depended on it to the four-piece’s anthemic brand of chorus-heavy indie.
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And then? Well, over the course of the next ninety minutes, any second thoughts we might’ve had about The Academic being the best Irish band around right now were immediately vetoed.
As the band rattled through a setlist of stone-cold bangers and indie disco classics-in-waiting, we realised how many top-tier tracks these boys have in their pockets; and frankly, we think it’s only a matter of time before we see them headlining arenas, rather than supporting other artists in them.
So, long live The Academic: Ireland’s finest purveyors of indie-pop goodness, and a band who (somehow) only seem to be getting better and better as time goes by.
