|
|
Let's get something straight here - this is a very different Therapy? to the one I've seen on the last two tours. Taking the stage tonight, not only do they have a new drummer but cellist/guitarist Martin McCarrick is also conspicuous by his absence. There's an ominous sense of foreboding about this. It lasts roughly as long as it takes for the new slimmed-down Therapy? to blast through "Nowhere" and "Teethgrinder" with all the ferocity and venom of days of yore.
Earlier tonight, White Light Motorcade kept the crowd vaguely interested for around 30 minutes with a set of sparked-up NYC punk which drops the half-arsedness of their album for a more Johnny T-style urgency and is all the better for it. But really, tonight was Therapy?'s gig. Playing a mix of the new ("Rust", "Not In Any Name", "If It Kills Me") and a whole clutch of forgotten classics ("Dancin' With Manson", "Stop It You're Killing Me", "Punishment Kiss"). En route, Andy Cairns and Michael McKeegan freewheel around the stage gobbing like two men posessed while new drummer Neil Cooper spends the gig thrashing the life out of his kit ensuring that Graham Hopkins isn't missed.
It may well be a few years now since Therapy? were troubling the charts on a regular basis but on tonight's showing the fire is definitely still there. Go see them for yourself - it'll make a nice change from half-arsed NYC urchins trying to be "street".
Reviewed by Andy James
