As the stage lights go down, and Two Door Cinema Club came up, the band  fluttered into the first song of their 2026 tour: “Cigarettes in the Theatre” — a song that poetically begins with the words “it starts in the theatre, a night of encounters.” 

There was an undeniable magic within the Salt Shed fairgrounds as Two Door Cinema Club was welcomed by Chicagoland with roars of excitement — with credit to supporting act STRFKR for warming up the audience with a psychedelic pop performance to start. 

To open, STRFKR graced the stage as the colorful fog rolled in, dawning astronaut suits and wigs. The crowd seemed to light up as I watched them all sink into a mellow serenity. STRFKR’s performance seemed to adorn the crowd, with a rainbow of colors coating their faces as they fell into the act in front of them. There could not have been a better opener for Two Door Cinema Club than STRFKR.

When Two Door Cinema Club came on stage, the crowd saw black, until the lights came up revealing a lit up marquee behind lead singer Alex Trimble. Members Sam Halliday & Kevin Baird suddenly silhouetted by the visual of an empty theatre scene behind them. These visuals ranged from displaying empty balcony seats to videos of blinding stage lights, in a way that was almost reciprocal to the crowd ahead of them. 

Their stage background might’ve depicted the absence of people, but the Salt Shed mirrored the exact opposite. As they danced through songs like “This is the Life,” “Do You Want It All?,” and — for the first time since 2011 — “Kids,” Trimble commanded center stage with confidence, bouncing off of the energy of the concertgoers. His yellow Fender colliding with the red and orange lights of his surroundings. 

Out of a 20 song set, Two Door Cinema Club hit all of the fan favorites — niche, popular, modern, old. You name it, and they played it. With the plethora of hits that they’ve made, counting “What You Know” with over 1,000,000,000 streams, they left the last four slots of the set for the songs of “Tourist History” — their most universally loved album to date. Beginning to come to a close with the everlasting hit “Undercover Martyn,” the crowd was electrified by the entire set. People swayed from side to side, sloshing their Michelob’s around without a care in the world. 

“You don’t want to be alone,” echoed throughout the fairgrounds. We all seek nights of encounters, we’ve all craved more of those nights. You could tell by how passionately the crowd sang along that they felt every single word. I think there was something very special about a crowd of people united by that thought — the thought that we will always want other people to be around us, and the idea that music can help us achieve that, even for a split second, is beautiful. 

Two Door Cinema Club continues their tour tonight in Philadelphia. You can check out their website for more tour locations here.

all photos & writing creds to waverly cayo. you can find us via @scenesicknessblog on instagram & on tiktok as @scenesickness.com!