Remember The Blackout? One of the many bands that came out of Wales in the mid-00s from one of the best alt-rock scenes in the world at the time, the boys from Merthyr released four albums and two EPs before announcing their breakup, playing their final ever show in 2015. Except it was not their final ever show: after reuniting for last year’s Download Festival, the band are touring once again, stopping off in Cardiff this evening.
Main support tonight comes from Glasgow’s Dead Pony, whose set of throwback alt-rock bangers is great, promising good things to come for the four piece who release their debut album Ignore This at the start of April.
Arriving on stage, The Blackout immediately burst into This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things before co-frontman Sean Smith lets the room know that “it’s time to fucking move!” and Never By Your Side kicks on. It’s almost as if we’ve gone back in time 10 years, except we’ve all got back pain and the other co-frontman Gavin Butler has done his Achilles in so has what Smith calls a “robot leg”. The band’s chemistry and interplay hasn’t dissipated one bit: jokes about MySpace and LinkedIn, asking if any of the crowd has seen the band before (Smith: “you fucking idiots!”; Butler: “you guys must have the worst memories”), and asking for a circle pit “but walking cos we’re all old now”.
Most of the set tonight is comprised of songs from 2008’s The Best In Town, with the likes of The Fire, Children Of The Night (dedicated to “anyone who’s ever been called a goth, a greeb, or a mosher”), and Said & Done going down very nicely alongside the likes of I’m A Riot? You’re A Fucking Riot! and Higher & Higher. The show ends with a double whammy of ShutTheFuckUppercut and Save Our Selves (The Warning), with Smith repeating, “I know I’ve said it a few times but we never thought we’d play to this many people again!”
In all honesty, it’s not clear whether this is a full return for The Blackout or just a victory lap; either way, the world feels just a little bit better with them back in it, even if just for one more time.
The Blackout + Dead Pony, Great Hall, Cardiff University Students Union, Thurs 22 Feb
words JOSHUA WILLIAMS photos CHLOE JACKSON-NOTT
