My friend and I first saw the indie band Bombay Bicycle Club at the Cambridge Corn Exchange when we were teenagers.

It was 2010, and they were on the line-up for the NME Awards Tour, alongside The Drums, The Maccabees and The Big Pink.

We still reminisce about that gig as if it happened just months ago; not only was it one of our first live music experiences, but it also provided a gateway into a new world of music.

Tonight, 14 years to the month later, it seems that - like us - everyone is ready to relive their indie years. 

Few bands in the scene have withstood the test of time like BBC, who split for several years, but since returning have remained on-top form. 

And it’s no different at this, their return to the Cambridge Corn Exchange, a venue they last visited in 2020 around their ‘Everything Else Has Gone Wrong’ album.

Performing for a sold-out crowd, Steadman and co bound on to the stage (which is decked out like a full-on party with colourful paper streamers and balloons forming the backdrop).

After opening with tracks from their new album ‘My Big Day’, they turn back the decades in a career-spanning set that stretches right back to their 2009 debut album ‘I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose’. 

The band, who are joined by vocalist Olive Jones and several instrumentalists, are the tightest they’ve ever sounded.

It doesn’t take long to realise how much their sound has elevated over time; in fact, their show now features a total of eight musicians on stage at the same time.

Weaving between crunching rock guitars to warm percussive sounds, ‘Tekken 2’ sees Jones fill in for Chaka Kahn – she does a great job matching the icon’s high notes.

A cover of Selena Gomez’s ‘Lose You To Love Me’ follows, and they really make it their own, so much so that it could be one of BBC's own songs. 

“The album is all about having a good time and not worrying about what people think of you,” Steadmam says of their latest, ‘My Big Day’, to rapturous applause, before they perform 'Fantasneeze' from their upcoming EP. 

After a joyous ‘Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing But You)’, the lights go out for them to later return like it’s 2009 with ‘Evening/Morning’ which has pockets of the crowd slowly letting their inhibitions go to start mini mosh-pits. 

The mood is then reset as Steadman performs an acoustic rendition of debut album favourite  ‘Dust On The Ground’, after which a fan shouts “I love you Jack”. 

A blistering ‘Carry Me’ gets people up on their friends shoulders soon after, before ‘Shuffle’ erupts in a mass singalong. 

With the patiently-joyous encore ‘Turn The World On’, which is dedicated to his two-year-old son, he encourages everybody to leave the room feeling optimistic about the future.

By the time the show comes to a close with ‘Always Like This’, Bombay Bicycle Club have circled back to the start of their stellar discography. 

A decade and a half may have passed, but it’s clear that the band - just like the audience - remain indie kids at heart. 

The Hunts Post: Bombay Bicycle Club's Cambridge Corn Exchange return is a carer-spanning indie throwback