Live Review

The Enemy – NME Tour – The Junction, Cambridge

• 16th Oct 2007

The Enemy at the NME!

We arrived waiting for the Enemy and dreading the arrival of the Wombats to stage, hundreds of kids ready to jump to their horrible little ditties. Lethal Bizzel had just finished and so we were spared that at least. BIZZEL actually thinks he is Kanye West or some other massive American hip hop ‘legend’.

As at the Gallows a week previous Lethal Bizz walked among the crowd with his minder and entourage in toe, a huge bodyguard and a couple of his mates or whatever protecting their dogg from the non existent scrum to see the man himself. So just to pretend people are interested in this joker they decided to squeeze their way through the tightly packed mosh pit and having annoyed half the venue, guess what they got in a fight and Lethal was saved from being swamped by his over excited subjects. Everyone stood laughing as the pathetic little posse pouted and preened their way backstage. We’ve seen enough of this guy – he may be adding something different to these rock and indie shows but that doesn’t make it right.

And so some good news for people who like bad news, the Wombats couldn’t play and while we expected to see Liverpool’s worst appear instead Tom and The Enemy stormed to stage to set up the Saturday night in true rock ‘n’ roll lad style. There was a lot of ageing Brit pop era lads in attendance getting smashed for the show and a late night in town. It all made for a bit of Oasis nostalgia. Tom really does mean it and the music is powerful enough to make the show memorable. The main set flew by but it was the encore where the real good stuff got going. Coming back to the huge NME screens playing the Enemy’s spinning train boards displaying England’s average towns to accompany their best song, ‘We’ll Live and Die in These Towns’ the venue was completely caught up. The epic encore got bigger with ‘You’re Not Alone’ – another tune that builds up to a rollicking chorus and got everyone dancing. The moment of the night was jumping to the infectious ‘Away From Here’ – “away awayooo, ooh, oooh, away from here!!!” When they crashed from the stage before ten we certainly hadn’t ‘Had Enough’ but everyone was more than up for a lager fuelled night in the Wetherspoons pub. It made for a top gig.

When you look back the only problem is that this is as good as it will get. This wasn’t classic, it was great preparation for a good old night out but if Oasis couldn’t get better in fifteen years from ‘Definitely Maybe’ is there any hope for these? Well they are the best of the wave of grimy, tell it how it really is, bands talking of crap jobs and rubbish towns and there’s no doubting it means everything to them and their fans. Coventry’s finest, no doubt but in the end they can go only so far and will disappear. It’s best to enjoy the music, enjoy the passion and energy and don’t think too much of the future – we’ll die in these towns anyhow.