Live Review: The Vaccines/ Delivery/ T Truman – HMV Empire – Coventry 27/10/24

The Vaccines are back with a new album and put on a stellar show at the sold out HMV Empire in Coventry.

A gig on a Sunday night are normally quite chilled out nights, but this isn’t a normal Sunday night, its Half Term and this Coventry crowd is ready to party with The Vaccines.

First up was a recognisable face in T Truman, the side project of The Vaccines guitarist Tim Lanham. Decked out with a roller banner, a battered old keyboard and an 80s boom box, with the occasional song with guitar, this side project is very different from the familiar tunes of The Vaccines, with this short set list made up mainly of songs from his debut album ‘Guaranteed To Shine’ as well as EP ‘Luxury Star.’ If you’re going to a Vaccines show, make sure you get down early to catch him, you never know where he might pop up again!

In an update later in the show from Vaccines front man Justin, apologised for T Truman and let us know he has been thrown out the venue…. with a cheeky wink.

Next up was Melbourne’s Delivery who spoke about how they’d had breakfast in the local ‘Big Banger Cafe’ in Coventry that morning and how they’re so happy to be playing in Coventry.

The Australian 5 piece played thumping beats from their debut album ‘Forever Giving Handshakes’ swell as new singles from their upcoming album release.

It seemed like a slow start for the band, who really got into their groove after a few songs, swapping between lead vocals to really give the band a different feel, almost Arcade Fire esq. A short but sweet set left me wanting to hear more from them, so job done!

Following a brief interval the packed out HMV Empire, was singing loudly to the pre-show music from the band (ABBA/ Paul Simon and Paul McCartney) and this crowd didn’t stop singing for the whole show.

The stage is lit up beautiful and the band enter to loud applause and you can tell the band are up for it as much as the crowd as they go straight into latest album track ‘Love To Walk Away.’

Its a bold move from the band to open with a track that hasn’t been released as single but the strength of The Vaccines has always been that their albums are made up of catchy songs that could all stand on their own as singles.

The intensity of the gig turned up a notch with the opening notes of ‘Wreckin’ Bar’ from 2011’s debut album ‘What Did You Expect From The Vaccines’ whipping the sold out crowd into a frenzy.

Justin said how much they love playing in Coventry and it was their 2nd time in 3 years playing in the HMV Empire, the last time they were there they were playing tracks from their 5th album, but now they’re back with their 6th album – ‘Pick-Up Full of Pink Carnations’

It was amazing to hear ‘Headphones Baby’ and ‘Jump off the Top’ live, real crowd pleasers from 2021’s album – ‘Back in Love City’

The Vaccines know how to put on a show and show no signs of stopping, the songs from their debut still sound so good live, and the crowd go as wild for all those songs like they are brand new.

The Vaccines set was 21 songs long, 6 from the latest release, this show had no filler, if this set list was released as a ‘Best Of’ you’d have an amazing album.

So a message to The Vaccines, If you wanna come back to Coventry it’s alright.