10 years, 5 albums, thousands of fans cramped into The Triffid Saturday. This is what the British India fandom comprises of. Finding their original success in live shows, the story remains the same 10 years later.

The Melbournite 4 piece had the jaunty air of a reunion tour, playing for old friends and family. But when you looked out on the crowd that had packed in the Triffid, fans ranged from young girls in lacy white dresses to bearded blokes who looking nothing like their driver’s license anymore.

Perhaps the apprehension was mutual amongst the crowd – would British India focus on their newest album or satiate fans with the greatest hits? Forgetting the Future, though by no means a terrible album is their first album to be out of the Top 10 Album slots since 2008.

Quite the opposite, the set list was like a scene from Back to the Future, or maybe more chaotically like Rick and Morty – flying up and down the last 10 years in no particular order. Unafraid to lean heavily on hits from the likes of Controller, Guillotine and Avalanche it was also a bit of reunion for the punters too – being reacquainted to the late 2000s and the wave of emotional rock.  British India seemed just happy to be up on stage, at one point the band through the set list out the window and took straight up requests by attempting to decipher drunken shrieks from the Triffid crowd.

Declan Melia admits on stage this tour was almost like a practice run. Though nothing felt superficial about it. The sweat was as real as the screams of the crowd. What Melia meant was it hasn’t been lost on anyone this is the 10 year anniversary of Guillotine. Melia coyly teased out an anniversary show on the horizon. So we’ll be seeing them again in December I’m sure.   

Meredith McLean