Everything Everything with Headquarters @ The Globe

In the interests of full disclosure, I should say that I was extremely excited for this event. Everything Everything have been one of my favourite bands since familiarising myself with Man Alive early last year. Therefore, I might be slightly biased. To balance things, I shall begin with a tepid review of the opening act, Headquarters.

The band of the brother of Everything Everything's bass player, they certainly didn't sound like the obvious choice for support. Slightly blues-y and heavily influenced by decades old rock and roll, they tried to stage a proclamation that traditional guitar obsessed rock is not facing a demise. They were not convincing. Once or twice they did invoke a slight feeling of listening to the rusty American rock and roll from bygone eras but more often it came across as archaic and, as such, offered nothing new or interesting. A lot of the time, I could have just been listening to the generic music they used to play on wrestling games. It should be noted that a chance meeting with the tour manager after they played saw him being as or more disparaging than this paragraph. Perhaps that says something.

During the same conversation, and after I found out who he was, I was informed that I should expect to hear 75% of the upcoming album from Everything Everything and that "they have managed to still sound like Everything Everything but not sound like the first album". I was expecting that level of new stuff given the amount of time since the first album's release and eagerly awaited confirmation of his verdict. 

Despite a stumble at the start, with some technical(?) difficulties the set was a glorious treat, as expected. When they played their new songs, any lack of polish in places was made up for with extra effort and a real desire to convince everyone that they will enjoy the next album as much, if not more, than the first. And rather than this taking the spotlight away from fan favourites like Final Form and Photoshop Handsome it simply made them seem effortless. 

With Man Alive, Everything Everything walked a distinctive tightrope between the sounds of Wild Beasts and the electrical atmosphere of Foals and while certain influences were always noticeable, it did not make their personal sound seem anything less than individual. The new stuff sounds like they have lost their footing and are currently dangling over the electronica safety net, holding onto the rope with Alex Robertshaw's astounding guitar work and Jonathan Higgs's excellent puberty vocals.

For those not already enamoured with the band, the second album will, like the first, be a bit of a grower and probably won't be the genre defining/destroying masterpiece we all want from them. But it might be, I believe they have it in them to do it one day.

8.7/10