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Mention Clinic amongst your mates and you may get a nod or glint of recognition, more likely a blank ‘what’, but the scousers have never been a band heavy on promotion, without which they’ll never receive the acclaim they surely deserve.
Confidence is a funny thing, naming your band something shit like The Adventures of Loki is one thing, acting like your Bono onstage is another, put them together and you’re likely to hear a communal mumble of ‘wankers’. Aside from such trivials tonight’s support aren’t actually that bad, at points sounding like a poppy Scarfo and theres even a gentle nod to the sadly missed Ikara Colt. Ending with the brilliant 'Suck it and See' The Adventures of Loki could be onto a decent thing…that is if they ditch the cocky guitar lad and dump the name.
Clinic arrive in their usual operating uniform garb and proceed to guide us through the majority of ‘Visitations’ without a breath. They look ridiculous but sound monumental, Ade’s ethereal vocals all elfin and psychotic, matched to swirling Hammond and tribal drums is an impossible combination. ‘Harvest’s gentle rhythm is disposed early into the maniacal charge of ‘Tusk’ a Mark E swipe through the harsher Clinic side. ‘The New Seeker’ like many Clinic tracks see’s Ade’s contained aggression seeps through the smallest vocal tract, almost through gritted teeth he hisses and spits the words like your favourite obscenities, a concealed venom that sounds fantastic. ‘Paradise’ a slow burning stroll of a song, romanticised through blow piano and slide guitar, and does indeed evoke Caribbean paradise, which is an awkward apparition to sustain whilst watching doctors perform.
Where clinic excel though is through their throbbing tribal nuances, and there is none better than ‘Walking With Thee’. With its church organ and almost demonic falsetto refrain the track is arguably Clinic’s finest hour, a perfect amalgamation of everything that makes Clinic the greatest band that most people will never know. Tonight the Academy is happy to know them, very happy indeed.
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