The Old Flesh
After the release of the excellent self titled album and an excellent showing last time around there is an air of heavy expectation in the Academy 2 tonight. Not quite a sell out but it can’t be far off and it may be because the Christmas spirit is in full flow but the crowd are in fine voice tonight.
It really is smiles all round tonight with the band interacting with the crowd like they are all old friends and in many ways that’s what it feels like; long term fans have been through every up and down along with the band, so when the good times return like they do tonight it’s a cause for celebration! The mark of just how good the new album is comes with the fact that every track played from it tonight just slots into the set list as if it’s always been there. The best example of this being ‘The Hard Way’, which is just epic tonight, the whole band are on top form and whatever lift the crowd gives them comes straight back with interest. Of course the old favourites are not neglected (‘TV Tan’, Suckerpunch and ‘Sick of Drugs’) and if there was criticism to be had tonight it’s that some of the set could have been mixed up a little more, some new additions to the live set from the back catalogue would have been welcome.
Front man Ginger is in good spirits, engaging in some amusing banter with the crowd between songs, including playing the intro to ‘Geordie in Wonderland’ on a xylophone! There’s the added bonus of ‘Nita Nitro’ tonight, followed by ‘She’s All That’ and perhaps surprisingly the first of two songs from ‘Endless Nameless’ in ‘Sound Dog Babylon’. Once again you can’t fail to be impressed by the sheer energy and enthusiasm that the whole band displays and once again it’s Scott Sorry that steals the show on that front as he gives 100% throughout. The first part of the set is rounded off by the great cover of the ‘Cheers’ theme tune, which has recently be revived on the Chris Moyles show. The encore begins with ‘Urge’, which sounds so much better live than the album version, which was awash with over layered feedback.
From here on in I’m thinking this is probably one of the best endings to a set that I’ve ever seen; O.C.D is just phenomenal, the musicianship quite outstanding and it precedes the crowd favourite ’29 X The Pain’ , which almost everyone in the building sings along to. They finish the set with a couple of old classics in ‘My Baby is a Headfuck’ and ‘I Wanna Go’, the crowd noise during the latter causing Ginger to break out in a broad grin. Sometimes you just have to tell it like it is, The Wildhearts are just brilliant and the world is a better place for it.