23rd November. Hammersmith Palais.
I've a good friend who refuses to see support acts. It's something we've always agreed to disagree about, but The Engineers make his argument far more persuasive than usual. They don’t grab you by the balls, nor tug at your shirt, or even tap you politely on the shoulder. They sound like a Nineties Shoegazing band - a genre mocked by most - but The Engineers don't seem to care. It's a reaction also felt by the crowd who talk loudly throughout the set as if nothing was happening. It barely is, this is just background music, pleasant occasionally, but instantly forgettable.
Beginning with Ashes, All You Good Good People, and My Weakness Is None Of Your Business, singer Danny McNamara instantly commands not just the crowd's attention, but also there love and devotion. Nearly every song they play tonight sounds better than the recorded version, with Danny's vocals so much stronger than they were previously, singing lessons have been taken or he's just finally blown his nose, either way complaints about his voice being nasally no longer apply. Nearly all of the tracks from the first album get an outing tonight, and all sound as if they could have been written yesterday. And how many band's back catalogues can you say that about?
Those who mutter that they're big comeback is all due to Chris Martin penning them Gravity are proved gloriously wrong too. Now new songs at gigs can sometimes be problematic. For one thing the audience want to sing along to something they know, and secondly they’re often unpolished, and can bear little resemblance to the finished track (Take Pulp’s Common People for instance, when they first played it at Reading festival it sounded weak and insipid, and didn’t have that poppy edge the final version does). But new song “Even Smaller Stones” is amazing. I love their early stuff, but this is so superior it’s astounding. With a real sense of dramatic urgency, it’s a song which will finally stop any nay sayers from criticising Danny and co. This, Ashes, Out of Nothing and nearly all of the songs from their latest album show how Danny’s lyricism has improved over the years, at times it was a little too obvious, they’re not often huge fans of metaphors, this band, but now they're more subtle, and the songs are even more powerful due to this.
Danny mentioned at the beginning of the gig that he felt shite, but by the end he was professing to how he never wanted to leave the stage, having won over the usually cynical London crowd. Despite having already been there for two hours, the audience didn’t want them to go either. Alas the lights had to come up eventually, and I couldn't help but notice how my throat and hands were raw with so much cheering and clapping, how my legs ached due to so much bad dancing. But I really wouldn't have it any other way. Embrace summed up the night perfectly with Come Back To What You Know - Ah, Danny, I just wish I’d listened to you earlier.
Alex Finch.
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