The Globe, Cardiff
Wed 5 Dec
words: NOEL GARDNER
Northern Irish trio Therapy? – to omit the question mark would out you as a rank amateur – have been together since 1989, with barely any breaks to speak of in those 23 years. It seems nigh-on inevitable that a decent percentage of the crowd at this gig will be here largely for nostalgic reasons. Most likely, they were rock-centric teens in the 90s who gravitated towards the band’s early albums, such as Nurse and Troublegum, when they were popular enough to regularly bother the singles charts.
Still, even if the audience are mainly concerned about rolling back the years, this isn’t an accusation you can level at Therapy? themselves. The band released their 13th album, A Brief Crack Of Light, earlier this year: it’s an ambitious and open-eared record that, while not an unqualified success, has little interest in merely sounding like the rock-club-friendly Therapy? faves from back in the day. Also, it’s likely that the more rhythmically interesting moments (Marlow bears comparison to Battles; Plague Bell to long-time influences Fugazi) will possess extra potency when played live.
This Cardiff date forms part of Therapy?’s second UK tour of 2012: the first one was a double-header with Newport’s Skindred, was sponsored by Jagermeister and tickets cost a fiver as a result. Presumably, this was at least to some extent an effort to get kids to come and check out the band. They’re not going to be so financially generous this time, granted, but you get Hawk Eyes and Lafaro as supports, and you don’t have to go to the painfully bad Bristol Academy to watch them.
One of the few bands given equal praise by NME and Kerrang! in the 90s, Therapy? were never easily associated with any one scene or subgenre. (In 1993, their debut visits to the USA were as tour support for Christian hard rockers King’s X first, and icons of noise-rock Helmet and The Jesus Lizard thereafter.) This might have worked against them in terms of fashionability – after 1998’s Semi-Detached, their last major label LP, they got decidedly less press coverage – but it’s safe to say the band would sacrifice quote-unquote coolness for the luxury of making pretty much the music they want to. That’s what they’ve been doing all this time, and their diversity and rockingness might surprise you.
Tickets: £15. Info: 07590 471888