Selling out a gig is one thing, selling out a two-night run is another, but Picture This were taking over the Olympia Theatre this week with a set of five sold-out gigs. It’s not even the first time that they’ve headlined the Olympia this year, as they were the main at last month at FM 104’s The Gig. With their pop-rock anthems for the young and in love, Picture This have earned themselves a devoted audience of fans who would probably sell out the Olympia every night for a month if they could.
Playing a massive theatre venue like this isn’t any other gig, and they know it, so they take the opportunity to have fun with it. Early on in the gig, frontman Ryan Hennessy disappears backstage, and by the time he emerges again, he’s perched on one of the Olympia’s opulent balconies, legs hanging out over the velvet and gold trimmed ledge. There’s no such thing as boundaries for him, as later he’s delving down into the audience for another song, only visible from the crowd a couple times, like a struggling swimmer who can’t keep his head above water. We can still hear him though, and that’s what counts.
Back safely on stage, Hennessy tells the crowd “If you know this one, you can sing along,” and they do, so much so that he feels free to leave the mic in its stand and wander the stage a bit until joining the chorus.
“This one’s about being young, getting drunk, and making a lot of mistakes, like everybody's gonna do tonight,” the band says, introducing hit tune “Let’s Be Young”. One of their most popular songs, it’s also lyrically the most simplistic, not venturing much further than those three themes. Still, every generation has their own version of a song like this, one with lyrics that you can yell out the open window of your best friend’s car in the summer. For the Picture This fans who were lucky enough to be on Dame Street this week, “Let’s Be Young” is their song.
The audience also demands to hear “Take My Hand” before the night is through, and with heartwarmingly honest, though somewhat sappy lyrics, it’s a strong live rendition of a hit that is sure to make it to the top of more than a few wedding playlists. Still, with a set that wrapped around half ten, it seemed like the audience wasn’t ready for the night to be over. Hopefully they had tickets to the other three gigs.