More about: Arab Strap

Emerging late onto the stage at Electric Ballroom, Arab Strap waste little more time getting going on their mammoth one-hour-forty-five-minute set. Beginning with a transcendent live version of 'The Turning Of Our Bones', the duo (plus band) embark on an odyssey of transcendence. 

Ever avoidant of genre categorisation, at least one thing is absolutely certain about Arab Strap: they know how to write—and deliver—an absolutely belter. In the case of this evening, it is precisely 18 belters that the pair whip out to a very full and very hot Electric Ballroom.

Upon entering The Ballroom, the evening is hot—sweltering even—with the urgency such weather carries thrumming through the city. By the time Arab Strap have wrapped on their set, it is 11pm and the Camden pavements are wet with rain. For those who were witness to the gig that bissected the two states, it feels as though the music itself may have been the cause of darkness and precipitation. This is a display of talent and honesty that seems to bend the very air around it.

Aidan Moffat, dressed in shorts (true Michael Eavis-at-an-awards-show style), has an easy way about delivering lines that are alternately soul-baring, humiliating, poignant and humorous. His demeanour on stage does not appear that of someone who has been largely dormant for two years—and away from Arab Strap itself for a considerable deal more.

It is Malcolm Middleton though—baseball hat reliably on—who steals the show away. We've always known that his riffs are something to behold of course, but it is live that you realise just how much. Every new song reveals a face-melting newbie, seemingly easy to play but only something a true musical natural could write. Through a particularly mind-bending run of 'Kebabylon', 'Here Comes Comus!' ("this is a song about the good times"), 'Piglet' and 'Love Detective', Middleton presents a lifetime of work that should rival that of guitarists in any other '90s band. 

Indeed, Arab Strap as a whole should be far more popular than they already are. With As Days Get Dark, they hook in a new generation of fans while a slightly older crowd are delirious to the sounds of 'The First Big Weekend'. Both then-Arab Strap and now-Arab Strap deserve the delirium. They are, as solidified live, a transcendent band.

More about: Arab Strap