If you’re over the age of about 25, you should like, nay, love Therapy?. Even today, ’Screamager’ will still fill the floor of any rock club that has any pride. And so, it’s fitting they kick off their 20th anniversary live show with this astonishing track; the perfect paean of pubescent pain. And the very essence of why we love Therapy?. But it’s not the only reason, as a quick shuffle through this two hour live disc proves: there’s the maudlin sigh of tracks from ‘Infernal Love’, the inclusion of tracks from their very earliest EPs right through to cuts from last year’s angular ‘Crooked Timber’. And for geeky fans, the single-only ‘Opal Mantra’. If you’re a long-time Therapy? fan, you probably won’t need to read on any further.
Anyway, like all live albums, this suffers in the cold light of a living room: sometimes there’s a lack of definition, and the tactile feeling of each bass drum hit kicking you in the sternum is lost on a recording more bootleg than most. And also, the feeling of singing along with 149 others pissed punters. But in a way, that’s part of the charm here. And with the clarity of a three piece (the ‘classic’ Therapy? configuration), early songs noise-rock songs like ‘Innocent X’ and ‘Potato Junkie’ are allowed to ring out good and true; the only failing is on Hüsker Dü cover ‘Diane’, which is far closer to the punk-rock original, and loses the tremendous power that comes from having the slow contemplative cello drags that made the original cover so compelling and horrific.
Much better is the likes of ‘Potato Junkie’, which remains undiluted by the years of adulation it’s received over the years. Overall, it’s the material from ‘Pleasure Death’ and ‘Babyteeth’ that work the best in this environment; the material from the groundbreaking ‘Troublegum’ is slick as fuck, but is perhaps too slick to carry off with just a three piece and an out-of-breath Andy Cairns rallying the truth – notably ‘Nowhere’, which suffers from being one guitar short, and ‘Isolation’, which to be honest always felt like a bit of a lazy cover anyway.
Anyway, for the likes of me who lost track of Therapy? after ‘Semi-Detached’ (‘Church Of Noise’ makes an appearance, but otherwise is not represented), it’s the newer tracks that keep the old interest taking over: ‘Enjoy The Struggle’ and ‘Rain Hits Concrete’ are arguably just as catchy as anything pre-1995, and a perfect riposte to those who thought the wind had gone out of their sales after the ignoramus collapse of their label A&M. Of course, it’s nowhere near as good as actually being in a cramped London sweat box, but as ‘Teethgrinder’ fades out, you get the feeling you have something that functions as well as a greatest hits collection as it does a live album.
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