There’s always something more, it moves us further : and it never ends. 

My anticipation for this much delayed gig rocketed to levels far above the sky in recent days - yes, a gig originally scheduled for April 2020, put off and put over not once, but twice. The ‘Re-Animator’ LP had endured a muted release, despite containing some startlingly brilliant songs from surely the most exciting band of the last 15 years. 

‘Raw Data Feel’ (the newest of new) is looming up beautifully into May’s release schedule, so the Mancunian quartet decide to kick proceedings off with the instant ear-worm of ‘Teletype’, the song with the excessively weird and crazily beautiful video that you (if you’re like me) have already watched a clutch of times. It WORKS and, with a lyrical refrain like “You might be everything that I want”, hits the smoking spot between your temples, granting hearts a peculiar, addictive leapfrog into the immediate present and future. 

With band members clad in all white, white background and whiter still lighting, this set has magnesium POP attached to its bopping body from the first bars until the too short encore about 80 minutes later. 

The flares scatter with the introduction of ‘Arch Enemy’, a sweet ditty about fat bergs, drenched in curlicues of tempered guitar feedback and no wasted spaces. There is, as with the BEST pop music, an unalloyed JOY in repetition, Jonathan Higgs using his refrains like their own instrumental breaks, making connections in every moment. It’s subtle cleverness like “I’ve got no business sitting in business class” that sets him apart from your average, everyday lyricist. Off the peg, math rock time signatures in ‘Planets’ meld with prog rock smarts that never sound forced. 

“I love your face and there’s no more time…”

The singular delicacy of some of their melodies set EE apart from their contemporaries. Although they use the latest technology to build their songs into casually unforgettable anthems, it’s the attention to detail, the ability to pick away at your heart whilst easily causing your body and soul to sway that amazes. ‘Birdsong’ reveals this in layers, a luxuriant build up to a maelstrom of repeated intonations of “in reverse” - the ultimate lockdown salve, as it proved to be. The mood shifts upwards with ‘To The Blade’s’ inward collapse, seamlessly blending into ‘Black Hyena’ and the limitless, celebratory ‘Black Friday’ whose energy spreads like a welcome virus throughout the willing audience. 

At this point, my notes become unintelligible. Please remember, I was attending this gig for pleasure primarily and, after a while, continued buzzing off the energy in the room. Yes, the Dome soon began pulsating, a sky full of euphoric rainbows. Is it Johnathan’s cooing falsetto or the ambrosial mash of melody and dissonance that elevates listening to almost supernatural levels? This band - this fierce originality - this desire to fill heads with the glorious stuff of life, love, intimacy, restless exploration.

The encore is phenomenal, albeit far too short. The pirouetting of ‘Distant Past’ and its furious strutting chorus (“I want to to go BAAACCKK!!”) juxtaposed with ‘No Reptiles’ and its anthemic sadness, proves a fitting end to a gig that rushed past, sweetly, beatifically, in a blur of multicoloured mist, spilling blasted punters out into the ocean swell and the metallic tang of sea air. 

Unforgettable, as you’d expect ; memories are crystal clear from moments like these. Everything is now. 

Hugh Ogilvie