Live Review : Therapy? + Deux Furieuses @ Academy, Manchester on November 14th 2024

Over the years Therapy? have managed to be everything to everybody whilst also simultaneously staying true to themselves. They are the only band to grace the stages at both this country’s premier extreme metal and classic rock festivals (Damnation and Stonedead). By being happy to prostitute themselves wherever anybody would listen they have managed to confound the gatekeepers and cultivate a career that transcends any notion of genre. They are conclusive proof that good songs and a positive attitude trump everything.

It is a cold night in Manchester town and Deux Furieuses have been shoved on earlier than advertised. This means that they are in a constant battle against a crowd that didn't expect them to be there and don't really care that they are there. It is a nostalgic audience primarily made up of people who remember “Troublegum” the first time around. This means that there is a lot of reacquainting going on between former gig buddies that time and family commitments have driven apart. Deux Furieuses seem to exist purely to get in the way of that catching up and the animated conversations sweeping across the hall often threaten to drown out what is going on onstage.

Ros Cairney and Vas Antoniadou valiantly plod on, but they lack an oppressive presence in which to bring the audience to order. Their music is stark and political and potentially in a small club environment with an audience that actually care, they would go down a proverbial storm. But sadly, in the sweeping acreage of the big Academy, they get lost and never quite find their footing.

It is blindingly obvious that Therapy? frontperson Andy Cairns is chuffed to be back in a venue they last headlined on the tour to promote “Troublegum” 30 years ago. He takes great care to thank the audience for coming out and spending their money on them, especially in the light of the current economic environment. Andy is a man that has seen his band have soaring highs (Donington Monsters of rock)  and soul-crushing lows (the entire noughties when nobody seemed to care anymore about them) and now takes nothing for granted. He is quite content to give the baying crowd what they want and to ride the nostalgia wave.

This is not the first time they have played “Troublegum” in its entirety. Knowing that a good proportion of the audience will have joined them for the 2010 retrospective tour they do things a bit different this time. They are less reverential, ignoring completely the recorded order and instead playing the 14 tracks in a scattergun manner that better suits the live environment. They also perforate the playback with a whole host of nuggets consummate with that point in their career. ‘Auto Surgery’, ‘Total Random Man’ and ‘Accelerator’ were the supporting cast to the imperious ‘Screamager’ on the “Shortsharpshock E.P.” and it is great to see them all resurface after nearly 30 years of isolation. 

Alongside giving the audience what they want set wise, 30-odd years of constant touring made Therapy? absolute master at whipping up the crowd. Michael and Andy talk to the baying masses after every single song aired. They acknowledge the current state of the world the only way that they can, by cajoling us to bellow out ‘Brainsaw’ haunting refrain “I'm in hell and I’m alone” for everyone at it is indeed true for. They also read out a list of fallen comrades (ranging from Sinead O'Connor to Iron Maiden's Paul Di’Anno) before they plough into ‘Die Laughing’. 

Tonight is Therapy? stripped back to the basics. Sometimes additional guitarist Stevie Firth is nowhere to be seen and they revel in the minimalistic might of the power trio. What made them so exciting when they emerged is that they effortlessly combined the muscular energy of metal with the world-weary realism of punk. They knew inherently less is always more and based their songs around short sharp driving riffs and laser-tight choruses , dispensing with all the additional trimmings that other bands thought necessary. That austere approach to songwriting still shines true to this day. As Andy explains before ‘Opal Mantra’, the thing he learned from Mancunian stalwarts the Buzzcocks and Joy Division was the beauty of the simple evocative chorus. 

The encore is an impressive acceleration through their biggest moments. ‘Potato Junkie’ is described as an old Irish folk song and is interspersed with both a drum solo and Black Sabbath's holy relic ‘Iron Man’. However, the cavorting threesome of ‘Teethgrinder’ into ‘Knives’ into ‘Screamager’ is very much their money shot. The audience who are already in wraps of delirious convulsion manage to find another layer of euphoria. It doesn't actually matter whether those three songs are metal, rock, punk, indie or even Venezuelan flute music, they are just simple but extraordinarily brilliant pieces of music driven by astonishingly driving riffs. This evening Therapy? illustrate that they effortlessly cross closely guarded musical boundaries because they have got that magical ingredient, the songs. They understand integrally the beauty of a heartrending chorus and they send us home into the night happy as Larry to have sung out to our heart's content.

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
Therapy? + Deux Furieuses