You know a gig’s going to be wild when the crowd are jumping around singing along loudly with the backing music before the band even come on. And the pre-gig mix for an Enemy crowd is perfect for the clientèle. The Stone Roses, Courteeners, The Fratellis, Primal Scream and Stereophonics are all rolled out before the band take to the stage following The Who’s Babe O’Riley. By this point the crowd are going crazy throwing drinks and generally getting ready to party.
The Enemy open with the title track of their excellent new record ‘It’s Automatic’ with the crowd showing they know the new album well already. A surprising opener but one which proved a good start to the show. Classic single ‘Had Enough’ from the band’s début album ‘We’ll Live And Die In These Towns’ followed and this is where the gig really kicked off. Bassist Andy Hopkins spent much of his time at the front of the stage right in front of the fans giving extra energy to an already exciting song. Another slow new song followed with ‘Everybody Needs Someone’ giving frontman Tom Clarke a chance to really use his powerful vocal range. The band added some lovely strings to this track on the album, reminiscent of ‘Last Goodbye’, one of the finest songs of their career.
From this point on there was simply a series of hits with ‘Be Somebody’ and ‘Saturday’ sending the crowd wild again. Tom introduced ‘Some Things’ as the first song on one of the band’s albums written by Andy, and a fine first song it is too, living up to the quality of Tom’s songs. As has been known to happen in the past at Enemy shows, the refrains of ‘This Song’ ring out for a long time during the song, while the band leave the stage, while the band retake the stage, after the song and out into the street after the show. An absolute anthem.
Old album closer ‘Happy Birthday Jane’ proves one of the highlights of the night before the double punch of ‘We’ll Live And Die In These Towns’ and ‘You’re Not Alone’ bring a brilliant show to its end.
Also well worthy of a mention was support act Brownbear. I had seen Brownbear only 5 days previous supporting Reverend and the Makers and they were very good both times with ‘Covers’ and ‘Dead Or Alive’ proving their stand-out tracks. With their début album due in 2016 they’re definitely one to watch.
Mumblings And Ramblings 