There’s a point early on, twenty minutes into Feeder’s set
at Manchester’s O2 Ritz, when frontman Grant Nicholas simply shouts “Pushing
the Senses!” to the sold-out, 1,500-strong crowd. It’s not until he plucks the
first notes of that iconic riff – embedded deeper into culture on the back of a
Vauxhall advert some years ago – that it becomes apparent that this is not Pushing the Senses as we know it.
Indeed, the nimble title track from the band’s 2005 album has been downtuned,
transforming it from its light power-pop origins into a more foreboding,
ferocious beast, that pummels the crowd with its pure wall of sound. Feeder
have returned, but not as you’ve seen them in recent times.
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| Grant Nicholas of Feeder, performing at the Isle of Wight Festival 2016, in the Big Top. (Courtesy of Feeder.rocks.) |
The duo of Nicholas and bassist Taka Hirose were, around the
millennium, arguably Britain’s finest purveyors of pop metal. The furore over
their 2005 headline appearance at Download, in hindsight, appears small-minded;
these gentlemen, and their various drummers since the death of original Jon Lee
in 2002, know how to rock, and rock hard. But Feeder haven’t particularly
dabbled in truly hard music since 2001’s commercial breakthrough Echo Park,
instead slowly conforming to a template of anthemic alt-rock pioneered by bands
such as Coldplay in a post-Britpop world. Their genre shift is understandable –
after all, most bands not called AC/DC do undergo stylistic changes - but it’s been a while since you could call
them remotely metal.
Nicholas and Hirose are out to change these preconceptions
though. Their return from an unexpected hiatus has not made waves in the press
or the charts – as perhaps is to be expected in the current music climate – but
with a new album entitled All Bright
Electric, the band are out to reconcile their origins as guitar-shredding
riff men with their modern dimensions of a genre-straddling unit. For most of
their ninety-five-minute-plus set, they do just that, throwing not just
hook-heavy metal at the crowd, but also Beatlesque melodies, post-rock
soundscapes, trippy-southern-gothic-pop and a touch of referential shoegaze for
good measure. It’s eclectic and mostly works.
The biggest complaint to be made is about the setlist. They
may have a record to promote, but with it yet to hit the shelves, it’s a ballsy
call by the group to cull a third of their setlist from it. Some tracks are
mesmerising, showcasing top-of-the-game songwriting, such as the moody opener Another Day on Earth; recent single Eskimo becomes a woozy psychedelic
number that gives ways to the stoner-rock of QOTSA and The Dead Weather, all
whiskey-drenched and devilish. Others, however, are rather unexciting; Geezer sounds like a mere pastiche of
Geezer Butler’s lesser work, whilst Infrared-Ultraviolet
feels like a painful, groaning chore. What makes it grating is their presence
in place of other, older hits – no Comfort
in Sound, Tumble and Fall or Borders. What should be concert staples
are new material of varying quality, met with a mixed response.
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| Taka Hirose and Grant Nicholas of Feeder, with Chris Hill of Warrington Wolves and Matty Smith of Wigan Warriors, at Old Trafford. (Courtesy of Feeder.) |
But it can be forgiven for how tight and fresh they sound, particularly
when recasting their older material. Accompanied by a drummer, rhythm guitarist
and keyboard player, Nicholas and Hirose overcome a sometimes muddy sound mix
to deliver stone-cold classics, played with a joyous passion. With lusty
singalong Feeling a Moment perhaps
their only classic hit not altered in some form, downtuning means that tracks
such as Come Back Around and Insomnia sound more intense and visceral
than they once did. Their most accomplished track Just the Way I’m Feeling suffers a little, its keening guitar lines
lost underneath the chords – but when they tease out the intro to Buck Rogers through a shoegaze-haze,
before restarting the bouncing power-pop anthem at full tilt, it’s impossible
not to grin.
Before they finish, Feeder tease their next visit to
Manchester – in front of a 70,000-plus crowd at Old Trafford for the Super
League Grand Final between Warrington and Wigan on Saturday. If going by the
reception they subsequently elicit with Just
a Day, its bellowing chorus and bludgeoning riff deafening, Nicholas and
Hirose need not worry about having to win over rugby fans. On the basis of
tonight’s return, one thing is clear; Feeder the softly-spoken are dead. Long
live the Feeder of old, resurrected in their loud, proud glory.
Andrew Steel
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