THE THE @ O2 ACADEMY BRIXTON, LONDON

Following the release of new album ‘Ensoulment’, their first studio release in almost a quarter of a century, The the played a double set as part of two London shows, performing the entire tracklist in order as a “listening set” before a second one from their classic back catalogue. With remaining founding member and vocalist Matt Johnson still at the band’s centre, they began on their juxtapositional new single, ‘Cognitive Dissonance’, with its creepy bass, and ‘Some Days I Drink My Coffee by the Grave of William Blake’; both tracks questioning the madness, confusion and change of the current times with a slow, jazzy blues backing that brought out more of Johnson’s deep vocals.

Whilst ‘Zen & Art of Dating’ sounded a bit instrumentally off key, the slivers of guitar in ‘Kissing the Ring of POTUS’ echoing Johnson’s lyrical genius, brought to the forefront his very dark, dystopian commentary on the decline of Western civilisation. ‘Life After Life’, whilst not having the instrumental grandeur as its recorded version, saw Barrie Cadogan (guitar) on backing vocals, who also uniquely strums with his ring finger. Whilst the new album is heavily political, this marked the point in which the set moved to the more spiritual and esoteric songs on the release, pivoting around the best live performance in the first set, ‘Linoleum Smooth to the Stockinged Foot’, themed on Johnson’s lucid experience of being in a clinical setting during Covid; it makes specific reference to lockdown tyranny against a vortex of screeching guitar white noise produced using a bow. Johnson is probably the only musician to bravely write lyrics about this controversial subject, although his vocals were not as pronounced over the industrial din as on the record. Further standouts in this set was the country tinged ‘Where Do We Go When We Die?’, for which Johnson played acoustic guitar, and the allegorical rhythm of ‘I Hope You Remember (The Things I Can’t Forget)’, which has a 1984 premonitionary foreboding.

After an interval, the band returned for their second, more “dancey” set (something a bit amiss on the new album) in which they played everything that any The the fan could possibly wish for, from the percussive beats of ‘Infected’, Herbie Hancock-styled ‘Armageddon Days Are Here (Again), to ‘Heartland’ and then their organ and guitar stripped back versions of ‘Slow Emotion Replay’; their best known single ‘This is The Day’; the hammering drumbeats and trademark guitar riff of ‘Icing Up’, finishing spectacularly on the back-to-back selection of ‘Sweet Bird of Truth’ and ‘Lonely Planet’; all songs still so relevant beyond their 80s, 90s and even 00s (‘Soul Mining’, ‘Infected’, ‘Mind Bomb, ‘Dusk’ and ‘NakedSelf’) generational production. The the also returned for an encore of ‘Uncertain Smile’ (with a fantastic keyboard solo) and ‘Giant’ from the band’s 1983 debut album. An emotional, soul touching set throughout, fully demonstrating the ‘ensoulment’ or enriching charm of Johnson’s work.

01/10/24: The the @ 02 Academy Brixton, London.