Live Review

The Others – The Lexington, London

• 29th Sep 2011

Had it really been four years since The Others last played live?

And perhaps, more importantly, did anyone care that they were breaking a rather lengthy silence with a one-off gig at Islington’s The Lexington?

I was asking questions myself, as a band that I had hung around with and closely followed in their prime (and possibly mine too), could a gig after all this time live up to the memories I have of such great times.

The surroundings were certainly plusher than any than any of the venues that I had seen them play previously, but as the opening chords of Lackey rang out, the years seemed to fall away and an excitement stirred inside me, a familiar warmth and urge to bounce around, singing my head off, and it certainly seemed that the same could be said for everyone else present.

Old favourites soon saw me in the thick of it, as crowd surfers passed overhead and fans were pogo-ing and holding each other close in celebration of times past and songs that still manage to unite people, despite the years that have passed and the band’s own falling out of favour with a fickle music press.

Between the belters taken from the two albums released to date were a whole brace of brand new tracks that The Others have been working on recently, perhaps there were too many new songs for a band on the comeback trail, but The Others played it smart, alternating the tracks throughout the set to carry enough momentum when the crowd were unable to sing the words back.

A clear cut difference could be seen between tracks old and new, old track provoked fits of stage-diving, whilst new tracks evoked a more muted response, yet the batch of new songs played showed a slightly wider scope for the band. Double Pernod offered a fame-directed vitriol that showed similarities with the values that made the band so sympathetic in their first flourishes, while others reminded us that they had away with a chorus that is distinctly recognisable as their own.

The Others never made a huge impact on the mainstream when they first crashed onto the music scene, they divided far too many opinions to ever be hailed as a ‘great’ band when everyone was scratching around for ‘the next big thing’, but it looks like they can still hold their own after all this time, they are still intent on making new music after all this time, and it is music that is still worth hearing.

The fans still want to see The Others play after all this time.

And I still found myself in the middle of a stage invasion for set closer This Is For The Poor after all this time