Grammatics

Famously dropped by their record label after their under-appreciated and under-selling second album News & Tributes,* The Futureheads* are back again independently, with new material from the tentatively titled This Is Not The World to showcase.

Lead singer Barry Hyde is inexplicably dressed in a black waistcoat and bow tie without any shirt, so he looks a bit like a stripper. Or a waiter. Or both. Bassist Jaff is a Julian Opie painting come to life and guitarist Ross is still channelling Penfold. They are a bundle of energy throughout and kick off the set with_ ‘Meantime’, still holding all the angular charm it did first time around. Tonight’s show is weighted heavily towards the first album and highly anticipated new material. Despite boasting some of the band’s best material, arguably, _News & Tributes seems to have been consigned as a blip in their career. This is a crying shame as the likes of ‘Favours For Favours’ and ‘Skip To The End’ are among the best songs on show tonight. They display a progression from the band’s earliest material whilst not losing any of the melodic and indie disco elements; it would have been nice to hear ‘Cope’ or maybe ‘Return Of The Beserker’.

So, to the new stuff. ‘Broke Up The Time’ is a brilliant addition to The Futureheads’ catalogue and is also symptomatic of the new material. Clearly agitated following their treatment at the hands of the 679 bosses, the Gang Of Four-aping sparse songs have been replaced with fast-paced, aggressive and loud tracks. None of the eccentricities, jerkiness and four-part harmonies are present, dropped instead for simplistic rock ‘n’ roll. At one point Barry describes the new songs as “punk waltz”, which goes half way to describing the songs; the waltzing element is not quite apparent. ‘Crash’ _and ‘Everything is Changing Today’ trundle along in a lumpy fashion and merely add fuel to the chants from the morons at the back who want ‘Hounds Of Love’_.

Therein lays the problem for The Futureheads: they will never manage to shake off the initial flourishes of their career. Liverpool is bad enough for nostalgia as it is, but the likes of ‘Carnival Kids’, ‘A To B’, ‘Decent Days and Nights’ and the track of the night,_ ‘He Knows’, all shine far brighter than their more recent counter parts. ‘Hounds Of Love’ is not built up by the band which shows their discomfort with being - whisper it_ - One Hit Wonders. Whereas once you could wax lyrical about how they are under appreciated and misunderstood, the new material showcased tonight shows little desire to craft a new niche for themselves.

The one-song encore is the pre-debut album track ‘Piece Of Crap’, a frenetic thrash along that finds The Futureheads at their best. Fun, fast, disposable and instant – it’s a snapshot of the excitement of four years ago, and in a way a sad reminder of what once was.

Photo: Ryan Edy