Live Report: Teenage Fanclub – Leeds University Stylus

Much-loved Scottish indie institution prove their continuing vitality...

There’s a tendency these days for veteran bands to rely on the misty-eyed sentimentalism of nostalgia to sell out shows, but Teenage Fanclub are an anomaly in that their live performances are never too focused on the past. Even more atypical is the band’s latest album, ‘Here’, proved a success in its own right, reaching number 10 in the charts. The album was indeed a “heart-tugging reacquaintance”, as Tim Jonze put it in his review for The Guardian.

That’s not to say that nostalgia doesn’t play a big part in the obvious reverence for Teenage Fanclub tonight, given the age range of attendees, but it’s made all the more pertinent when you think it’s almost exactly a year to the day since the band’s breakthrough LP Bandwagonesque was released. On stage, Norman Blake is a warm, comforting presence; cracking witticisms and inviting the crowd for a pint in the pub after: “thank you for coming and giving Countryfile a miss”, he jokes.

Of course, there are no surprises here tonight. Similar to expectations of ‘Here’, you pretty much know what you’re going to get if you’re familiar with the band’s back catalogue: softly strummed guitars and plaintive harmonies, fabulously counteracted by their louder, grungier early material. Teenage Fanclub’s melodic aptitude shines brightly on their more timid, later releases, particularly 1997’s ‘Songs From Northern Britain’, and the likes of ‘Ain't That Enough’ prove to be a favourite this evening, but it’s not until the noisier, more impulsive moments when they really hit their stride.

A predictable observation, perhaps, but it’s difficult not to get caught up in the restrained chaos of ‘Star Sign’ and the dirg-y, slacker aesthetic of ‘The Concept’, both of which make recent single ‘I’m in Love’ sound woefully twee in comparison, despite its melodic brilliance. Of course, Teenage Fanclub play it safe these days. There’s not a lot to revile about the Byrdsian timidness of their most recent material, but it does run the risk of being overshadowed by the sheer thrill of the earlier version of the band when played live.

Inevitably, some of the best songs from the band’s oeuvre are distinctly amiss, such as the defiant ‘What You Do To Me’, and pretty much everything from their often unfairly maligned debut ‘A Catholic Education’ (in part because it’s so disparate from the sound that eventually defined them) but that’s a given when you have so much material to choose from. In fact, the whole ticket price would have been worth it just to hear them play the indelible ‘Everything Flows’ – which they do – with more conviction than ever, concluding in style with Blakes’ familiar, seemingly endless guitar solo. It’s not often a band remains worth seeing even 25 years after their epoch, but Teenage Fanclub are always dependably fantastic.

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Words: Hayley Scott

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