Tuesday 08/06/10 Teenage Fanclub @ Shepherd's Bush Empire, London

The Empire is shuffling room only in anticipation for Teenage Fanclub’s last night of their current UK tour. The venue has been uncomfortably stuffed, with punters filling every inch of the building to see some of Glasgow’s most important indie-pop pioneers.
 
When Norman Blake, Gerard Love, Raymond McGinley and Francis Macdonald came together in the late 80s, the planets were well and truly aligned for greatness, and as the opening chords of ‘Start Again’ from 1997’s ‘Songs From Northern Britain’ ring out, it’s clear a shining aural feast is to ensue. 

Love edges ahead as the favourite Fannie with ‘Sometimes I Don’t Need To Believe In Anything’, from brand-new release Shadows, clearly a return to form after a five-year recording absence. The vocals are ludicrously beautiful/melancholic, drifting through the harmonies like a summer breeze through the trees. 

Tonight relies heavily on tracks from the latest LP, with cherry-picked gems from their vast back catalogue scattered throughout. Macdonald thumps his drums and the harmonies drip like warm treacle during ‘It’s All In My Mind’, before McGinley takes to the mic for crowd-pleaser ‘Verisimilitude’, from arguably the band’s most acclaimed album, 1994’s ‘Grand Prix’. 

‘Shock And Awe’ is simply stunning with the lyric: “Wake me when the conflict is over/I aim for a peaceful life/Shake me when this madness is no more/I favour a peaceful life” - Love’s lullaby tone blanketing its simultaneous warmth and sadness across the auditorium.  

‘About You’ picks up the pace, before the gorgeous romantic ode ‘Your Love Is The Place Where I Come From’ chimes with delicate piano notes. ‘The Concept’ harks back to their long-haired youth with its epic guitar solo and elongated outro before a change of pace in the form of Blake’s finest effort from the new record. 

‘When I Still Have Thee’ proclaims the simplicities of life with simple driving guitar chords, soaring harmonies and nods to the Go Betweens and the Rolling Stones, making it truly impossible not to bop, grin from ear to ear and thank the sweet lord for these fellas. 

Inevitably ‘Sparky’s Dream’ catches the attention of the gig-natterers, getting those down the front jumping and signalling the end of the show proper before a four-song encore, which winds up with a cracking rendition of ‘Everything Flows’ – part shoegaze, part misery and 100% ace. 

Pure West Coast 60s/70s inspired guitar and vocal harmony brilliance, Teenage Fanclub continue to sound truly amazing after all these years, with the new tracks so fresh and full of hope, happiness and heartbreak, well on their way to forging a special place in their fans’ psyches.

Teenage Fanclub