LIVE REVIEW: Catfish and the Bottlemen at Sheffield Arena

THERE’S nothing like going to a gig in the week you’re turning 30 (again) where the majority of attendees are half your age to remind yourself you’re getting on a bit.

And the teenage crowd Catfish and the Bottlemen attracted to Sheffield’s Fly DSA Arena meant there was more drama off-stage than on!

I don’t think I’ve ever seen stewards deal with as many incidents in one night — from panic attacks to flares being set off — so at times I was distracted from the band’s performance.

One thing 16-year-olds tend to have a lot of is energy and stamina and the sea of fans on the floor didn’t stop jumping for the duration of the pounding 90-minute set.

Catfish front man Van McCann’s incredible energy single-handedly lights up the stage. 

At times, he looked like he was performing in a different band to his solemn bandmates.

Van thrashed about with the energy of a het-up punk rocker while playing the guitar like it was an extension of his gangly body, chasing the microphone stand round the stage with his mouth and tossing the mic over his shoulder when the stand crashed to the ground.

Van — what a man. He left everything on stage and the only down-time for the singer in the 18-song set came during his acoustic version of Hourglass. 

It was Van’s affable charm that first sparked my interest in the band. 

I like to judge my celebrities on how they come across on either a) The Graham Norton Show or b) Soccer AM.

I saw Van on the latter, cheerfully explaining that his Fallout lyric: ‘I was a test-tube baby, that’s why nobody gets me’, was in fact true.

It’s his ability to express an honest, kitchen-sink tale with a hands-in-the-air guitar-led anthem that have secured Catfish’s success as one of the biggest indie bands around today.

Much like the success of fellow indie soft-rockers Blossoms, it was easy to see on Tuesday that the band have captured the imagination of school-age music fans are fastly becoming that generations’ Arctic Monkeys.

There wasn’t a verse that wasn’t sung back full-pelt during the set. 

It’s hard to pick a stand-out but their encore of 7, Cocoon and Tyrants saw Van managing to reach next-level energy status.

Catfish are not reinventing the wheel and what they offer is a tried and tested formula, but that Van, he’s something special that I could get onboard with for a few more birthdays.

Check out my Twitter @TiserAdele to see the band performing Soundcheck or to send me birthday wishes!