Feeder return to O2 Brixton Academy to round off their Generation FreakShow tour. GIITV’s Joe Coyle went to check the band out and to see if the show had anything apart from nostalgia to offer.
Arguably the spiritual home of Rock music in the U.K, Brixton Academy has been a stalwart of the touring circuit for decades. It was fitting that Feeder ended their current tour there in front of a devoted crowd before taking an undefined hiatus.
Chants of ‘Feeder, Feeder’ rang out across the venue long before the band reached the stage. Feeder’s fans have always treated the band with an unnerving reverence and cemented passion and this night would prove no different.
Feeder as a band have always acknowledge the fans and the love between the two flows both ways even before a note has been played.
Walking onto the stage to the backing music of ’20th Century Trip’, Feeder quickly settled behind their instruments and proceedings began in earnest with ‘Oh My’ from the return to form album ‘Generation FreakShow’. With the exception of Insomnia the first four tracks played at the gig were met by a subdued crowd and it was only when the fifth track of the night ‘Feeling a Moment’ played that the party atmosphere was finally in place.
The middle seven songs of the set were basically a greatest hits selection which got the dedicated fans singing their hearts out and bouncing along to every drum beat. ‘Feeling a moment’ echoed round the hall majestically, the underrated ‘Renegades’ had a much more fervent crowd reaction that I was expecting and was greeted like an old treasured friend. Finishing off this greatest hits section with ‘Just the way I’m feeling’ and the undeniable anthem ‘Buck Rogers’ the band took the crowd to the peak of aural pleasure.
After a run of classic songs like that you would expect the tempo of the gig to drop a little and it did, but not as much as you would expect. Largely undiscovered gems as ‘Idaho’ and ‘Borders’ from the latest album sit comfortably in the set and provoke an enthusiastic reaction from the audience. Whereas the sing along which accompanies ‘High’ shows the long lasting affection the band have managed to preserve through the years.
The encore begins sombrely with one of the most underrated Feeder songs ‘Children of the Sun’ with it’s beautiful interweaving melodies and melancholy lyrics it proves a personal highlight to tonight’s proceedings. The band then thank the audience and inform us they are going to play some really old songs ‘for the anoraks’ and launch into ‘Sweet 16’ and ‘Descend’ which seems to confuse a part of the audience whilst delighting another.
Grant then announces that the band are going away for a while and this is going to be their last gig for sometime before saying ‘this is our last song tonight’. Everyone knows what the song is going to be and Grant looks mischievously at the crowd as he starts an avalanche of abandonment from the crowd as he launches into ‘Just a Day’ . As the last note rings out the band put down their instruments and revel in the atmosphere, thanking every inch of the crowd with waves and clapped hands and then they are gone.
Whilst the crowd at times struggled with the set list, Feeder had something to please everyone with a energetic performance which will remain long in my memory. Let’s hope that one of the U.K’s most loved Rock acts don’t leave it too long before they return.
Set list.
Oh My
Insomnia
Sentimental
Tiny Minds
Feeling a Moment
Renegades
Yesterday Went Too Soon
Pushing the Senses
Tender
Just the Way I’m Feeling
Buck Rogers
Idaho
Hey Johnny
High
Borders
Generation Freakshow
Encore:
Children of the Sun
Sweet 16
Descend
Shade
Just a Day
