Teenage Fanclub, Islington Assembly Hall, gig review: No surprises, but you wouldn't want it any other way
The warmth of Teenage Fanclub’s songs is matched only by that which radiates from the audience
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Your support makes all the difference.Few bands seem to inspire such affection from its fans as Teenage Fanclub. Tonight, as five middle-aged men take to the stage at Islington Assembly Hall, a crowd whose lives have been soundtracked by a lifetime’s worth of perfectly fashioned, harmonious indie-pop look on with melted hearts. The warmth of Teenage Fanclub’s songs is matched only by that which radiates from the audience. No wonder singer Norman Blake’s glasses are steaming up.
It has been 25 years since the Glasgow group’s breakthrough Bandwagonesque, an album that moved Kurt Cobain to declare the Fannies (as they’re affectionately known) the best band in the world. Like any long term relationship, Teenage Fanclub are not quite as exciting as they once were - you only have to see the response to a pulsating “Sparky’s Dream” from 1995’s Grand Prix, which sees people punching the air, or the jangle-grunge of 1991’s “The Concept”, which inspires something approaching moshing down the front - and have long settled into a recognisably measured groove. But they wear that familiarity like a warm blanket.
A bit of chatter from Blake aside (“We’ve just found out our new album is competing with The Beatles, so I’m sure we’ll be at that number one spot”) tonight is all about those harmonies and those choruses, all played with the ease of a band so simpatico it looks effortless. Songs from that forthcoming record Here, their tenth and yet another collaborative effort between songwriters Blake, Raymond McGinley and Gerry Love, could conceivably come from any era of Teenage Fanclub’s career, but as such they feel like reacquainting with old friends.
As with latter-day TFC there is introspection - the riffing “I’m in Love” warns “there is pain in this world” - but the four tracks aired from Here show a band who have long since honed their craft. “The Darkest Part of the Night” is particularly delightful, belying its title with a sunny West Coast strum and heavenly chorus.
They finish with “the song we always end with”, the early, shoegazey “Everything Flows”, which builds to an impressively heavy climax. No alarms and no surprises to the very end, then. With Teenage Fanclub you wouldn’t want it any other way.
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