If openers Telegram spent as much time writing songs as they do whirling their guitars about their heads they may have come up with something more interesting. Instead they highlight the ever-broadening margin between looking the part and sounding it.
It makes a pleasant change to actually see The Horrors tonight. Usually they’re engulfed by shadows, spectre-like contours shimmering beneath a smokescreen but a good dose of house lighting reveals the enigmas tonight. Well, partially.
Beginning with Chasing Shadows from their fourth album Luminous, released in May this year, the fivesome play a well-balanced set from their latter three records. Who Can Say makes way for a rousing rendition of Mirror’s Image, Still Life and Change Your Mind before they encore with a beautifully extended Moving Further Away.
The Horrors are a band who have constantly evolved and constantly impressed with each transformation and it’s testament to them that newer songs I See You and So Now You Know are met with equal appreciation as tried-and-tested favourites Sea Within a Sea and Endless Blue.
Still nothing from their perpetually-slighted 2007 debut Strange House, which is a shame given its capabilities, but here’s a band who have hit their stride and if it’s one which has no place for their first incarnation then, sounding this good, we’re more than willing to accept. We’ll give it a sneaky spin when they’re not looking.
Photos: Steve Gerrard
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- Younghusband
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- Bo Ningen
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- Babe
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- Babe
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- Babe
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- Gentlemen
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- Gentlemen
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- Gentlemen
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- Gentlemen
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- Teleman
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- Teleman
