Therapy? / Hawkeyes / LaFaro

The academy has an incentive on tonight… beer prices during the support acts will be £1.50 per pint, to encourage people to turn up early. Great idea… but not if the price goes up during the 2nd support act! Cheeky…



I am so glad though that I am here for LaFaro. Awesome band from Belfast, sounding like Jesus Lizard in parts. Such a fun band too, always joking with the crowd and each other, mocking band members for false starts, and thanks Sheffield for Def Leppard, Richard Hawley and the Human League. 'Easy Meat', their last track of their sadly short set, is a mixture of resting and manic guitar riffs and ear crippling metal rock. Well worth catching live if you can.



Hawkeyes are on next, straight up rock and roll. Hair is flying as all the head bangers swing their chins, the stage is smokey and the crowd is near on full capacity. They are a perfect warm up for the main band. 'Headstrung' has a nice fast and slow thing going on… with dual guitar harmonies in a tug of war with fast paced rock and roll riffs. Despite the odd drum problem (sorted out by the hard working Lev from band 'Monster Killed By Laser') the band power out around 8 songs in their again short set.

It's been about six years since Therapy? played in Yorkshire as a headline act, and we are ready for it. The release of 'A Brief Crack Of Light' early this year has meant fans can really get used to the album (not that it takes a lot of listening to) and be ready for singing along by this time of the year. There's a good few songs from that album played tonight, like 'The Buzzing' and 'Why Turbulence', which the crowd help to sing. My favourite new song is 'Living In The Shadow Of The Terrible Thing', which fits in really well with the older hits. And there are plenty of hits in the set…



It starts with 'Stop It You're Killing Me' from Troublegum, which is an awesome way to get this crowd motivated after all that cheap booze! The set even contains a really old track; 'Meat Abstract' from debut album 'Babyteeth', and 'Potato Junkie' from 1992's 'Pleasure Death', both in the encore.

Cairns dedicates 'Die Laughing' to Dad's Army's Clive Dunn. The moment the familiar riff of 'Teethgrinder' plays out of the speakers the crowd loose it, as they do for 'Stories'. 'Going Nowhere' and 'Screamager' as the penultimate tracks are also huge crowd pleasers, but the entire show has no lulls at all.



Guitarist Cairns, bassist McKeegan and drummer Neil Cooper still provide the most energetic performance, as people have come to love about the band; pointing the axes like guns and holding them aloft. Always thanking the crowd too and being very matey with them, this is a like a real cosy gig, just with loads of metal rock. I'm not gonna pigeonhole therapy? as many have tried and failed ('European Metallica meets Depeche Mode' anyone??), they are just riff masters who make bloody good rock tunes, and treat their fans like they should be treated, with respect.

Set list:
Stop It You're Killing Me
Turn
Why Turbulence
Living In The Shadow Of The Terrible Thing
Exiles
Unbeliever
Misery
The Buzzing
Teethgrinder
Bad Mother
Die Laughing
Before You, With You, After You
Get Your Dead Hand Off My Shoulder
Stories
Isolation

Rust
Ghost Trio
Diane
Meat Abstract
Going Nowhere
Screamager
Potato Junkie

FUTURE GIGS

sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.