Gig Review: Vitamin String Quartet at The Barbican ★★★★★

There is no such thing as the Vitamin String Quartet. They're an ever-changing line-up of musicians who have found an excellent schtick; modern songs played like classical music. Somehow they've parlayed that into over 300 albums, covering thousands of artists, and dominating the soundtrack of Bridgerton.

The concert is titled "The Music of Billie Eilish, Bridgerton, and Beyond" - it's all crowd-pleasers covering everything from "Take On Me" to the earworm from KPOP Demon Hunters. Venues now know they can't stop people pulling out their phones, so there was an announcement politely asking people not to record the whole show or use their flash but, other than that, snap away.

It was a delightfully relaxed performance. The audience were encouraged to sing along which filled the hall with pleasing susurrus of half-remembered lyrics. I'll admit to being ignorant of some of Billie Eilish's work but even if you don't recognise the tunes, there's no escaping the brilliance of the performances.

I'm not sure how adapted the setlist was for a UK audience, but it was nice to hear some Radiohead and Coldplay in there. The encore of Bohemian Rhapsody was, of course, outstanding and had everyone leaping to their feet in applause.

If a permutation of the VSQ visits your neighbourhood, I'd highly recommend basking in their talent.

The Venue

We picked up cheap tickets for the show. There's no such thing as a bad seat at the Barbican Hall. We were literally as far back as possible and still had a superb and unobstructed view of the stage. The acoustics were flawless and the seats were comfortable and had leg-room. Basically, every performance space in London should be this good. Of course, the toilets were another matter!

While there are loos scattered about the building, they're clearly inadequate for the number of patrons. The queue out of the ladies minutes before the show started should be an embarrassment to the Barbican.

Pre- and Post-Show

I've written before about The art of the Pre-Show and Post-Show. This concert had… nothing! There was no souvenir programme to buy and only a perfunctory pre-show email explaining how to find the venue.

The warm-up act, Tom Speight was decent. A half-hour acoustic set to get us going. His music was charming as was his crowd-work getting us to sing along.

There was meant to be a post-show merch stall with the opportunity of a meet-and-greet with VSQ. The Barbican is a maze and we couldn't find it on our trek from the balcony to the exit. Perhaps a little signposting would help?

The post-show email was utterly generic. No encouragement to share the experience or find out more about the performance or look for future tickets. Just a soulless Net Promoter Score exercise.