Photo: Emma Viola Lilja
"Let's make this a Saturday night to remember," beams a flabbergasted and humbled Theo Hutchcraft as he paces the stage before a sea of carnations, phones aloft and arms outstretched in love.
If there was ever band to play up with pomp and ceremony, Hurts certainly know how to create a sense of occasion. A thin black lace curtain hands across the stage with latest album title 'SURRENDER' flashed across it. It's a fitting mantra, as we prepare to lose ourselves in the vision of this artfully-considered duo - and give ourselves up to all that they do best.
"I am ready for the rapture, I am reaching for the light," croons Hutchcraft on the Euro-pop stomp of opener 'Some Kind Of Heaven'. It's a call to arms and battlecry, as Hurts finally reach the dizzying heights of greatness that they've always threatened.
In mainland and Eastern Europe, Hurts are an arena-filling, festival headlining prospect. That success has never quite been in matched in their native UK, but on nights like this, it doesn't matter one iota. Brixton is the venue where legends are made, and Hurts perform like they're exactly that. The Academy is rammed to the rafters, and all present are besotted with a band who exist like no other.
The show starts with the backing band hidden by a curtain, appearing only as silhouettes before it drops to reveal a classy Vegas-style disco light show. On Happiness they were a band finding their feet, before The Exile tour became a twisted gothic roadshow. Tonight, they're a celebration of all that they are.
'Miracle' blooms with the boldness of Depeche Mode at their most darkly anthemic, before 'Why' possesses the room with its totally shameless, unabashed pop sensationalism. The aching, pop-noir class of 'Blood, Tears And Gold' is the first of the night to unite the entire room in chorus, which continues as the rush of new romantic melodrama on 'Evelyn' brings grown men to their knees. We surrender.
New cut 'Rolling Stone' bursts with an opulence of baleful sounds and intentions, before we go full circle once again on the inescapable disco abandon of 'Lights'. It may have once seemed unimaginable that the once solemn, dark and dapper Manchester synth-noir revivalists would slink across across the stage with so much elasticity in their hips and so open a shirt, but Hurts have always had so many avenues to explore, and no fear of adventuring down them. Every signpost of pop is an opportunity, and thus far a victory too.
'Better Than Love' and 'Wonderful Life' are two of the most exquisite pop tracks that the 21st Century has produced so far, and the bliss of experiencing them consecutively with a room of this size is hard to beat. Ending on the tender longing of 'Wings' before returning for an encore of a most epic 'Nothing Will Be Bigger Than Us' and the best No.1 single that never was, 'Stay', a flawless evening comes to a close.
Now with a full spectrum of colour to accompany their myriad shades of black, tonight made for the vision of Hurts finally being fully-realised. The UK's biggest cult band and resplendent and complete no matter what country they are in and regardless of scale. None can deny them totally dominating their craft. This was more than a night to remember, it was their finest hour.
Hurts played:
Some Kind of Heaven
Miracle
Why
Somebody to Die For
Weight Of The World
Blood, Tears & Gold
Evelyn
Illuminated
Affair (Acoustic)
Rolling Stone
Lights
Sunday
Sandman
Wonderful Life
Better Than Love
Wings
Encore:
Nothing Will Be Bigger Than Us
Stay
