Therapy? Dish Out The Good Vibes
I'd forgotten just how well loved Therapy? are. The tent is totally packed, spilling out the edges - this should be a good set. I start off thinking that they're doing well in the attention stakes with headliners System of a Down but then I remember that the main stage is running late which kind of dilutes the impact.
For all that, the reception when they come on is intense. The cheering could raise the roof and dancing starts up everywhere the minute that they strike the first chord. Of course, the drumming is frighteningly awesome as always sending vibrations through my stomach.
Andy Cairns is on top form tonight, rousing the crowd with fiercely passionate banter. He's so pleased to be there, to be playing to a largish Donington crowd. Of course, with Therapy? being such a political band, no set would amiss without something of a political rant- this time against George Bush. And no rant is without a song attached, the amusingly titled new 'Rock you Monkeys', is a protest/satire song to end all protest/satire songs. For a start it's heavy than more popular material like 'Screamager', but then again most of the set is.
We even get given a cover of Joy Division's 'Isolation' halfway through, and it's the best song of set. The dark undertones and rasping vocals do it justice in so many ways. It's faultless.
And, still the new tracks keep coming- they're spoiling us. They're really good, 'Polar Bear' and 'Perish the Thought', like a mixture of the old and new but in a good way. Then again, oldies are goodies too and you just can't complain at having 'Going Nowhere' and 'Screamager' played one after the other. They maybe poppier but that doesn't make them any less than their rockier counterparts .
Tonight, Therapy? could easily have taken System of a Down on with the set they produced.