More about: The Libertines

What became of the likely lads? Still dressed like Victorian paperboys, still playing their guitars scrappily as if they're trying to brush dirt off their suits, still hooking in a rowdy crowd of blokes. Still really very good live.

They're late on stage, Carl and Pete and Gary and John. They're kept back by a slam poet who I'd love to tell you the name of, but can't, seeing as his performance was drowned out by a gail of boos from the crowd. When he finally exits stage right, The Libertines bowl on.

They don't speak to the crowd, not even once. They just launch into song after song of ramshackle indie. The indie that had millions of kids wearing scarves and pork pie hats back in 2004. They boast their way through Up The Bracket, Anthems For Doomed Youth and era-defining The Libertines as if they could play them in their sleep. 

The lights are green and then they're blue and then they're bright, bright white, the four musicians on stage bleached out in their glare. It's a shame that the sound tonight is muddied and faint because it doesn't do such a well-rehearsed band the justice they deserve. Thankfully, the crowd fill in the gaps; the venue is sold out and everyone knows every word.  

Obviously it's mayhem for 'Can't Stand Me Now' and set finisher 'Don't Look Back Into The Sun', but it's also a festival-like electricity that runs through the crowd for ballad 'You're My Waterloo', which Pete sings as Carl sits at the battered piano. It's the same set-up for equally-good ballad 'Dead For Love', which the quartet finish together at Carl's piano, the four of them sharing a touching moment, embracing, and moving back to their positions.

Carl and Pete's chemistry has not waned in the fifteen plus years they've been playing together: the two of them bounce off one another in a brotherly manner, criss-crossing on stage and sharing the microphone on several occasions. It's seamless and scrappy, touching and arrogant. The Libertines are still killing it. 

The Libertines played:

The Delaney
Heart of the Matter
Horror Show
Barbarians
Fame and Fortune
Boys in the Band
You're My Waterloo
The Saga
Vertigo
Campaign of Hate
Can't Stand Me Now
Last Post on the Bugle
The Ha Ha Wall
Dead For Love
Gunga Din
Bucket Shop
Up the Bracket
What Became of the Likely Lads
Death on the Stairs
Time for Heroes
Music When the Lights Go Out
What Katie Did
The Good Old Days
Don't Look Back Into The Sun

More about: The Libertines