March 21, 2003

Feeder : Manchester Apollo

...if this is the acid-spitting crux of all the danger and excitement that rock'n'roll has to offer, you really should get out more...

Honourable men, Feeder. Even if this tour wasn't the first with semi-replacement drummer Mark Richardson, even if last year's 'Comfort In Sound' hadn't seen them reach their stride under the worst possible circumstances, tonight would still be shot through with unfussed dignity and poise.

From the roaring opener - and their greatest single - 'Come Back Around', we get more highlights from 'Comfort In Sound'; 'Just The Way I'm Feeling' crackling with lump-in-throat serenity and the title-track hinting at epic, mudstained heroics still to come. Everyone's more comfortable of course, with well-oiled better-day anthems 'Buck Rogers' and 'Seven Days In The Sun'. And while 'High' reminds us quite why this party started (out, high with friends - any better sentiments on a postcard to the usual address), the steel in Grant's chiselled features shows just how far this band have come from that.

Trouble is, for such a hit-packed show with this many highlights, you kinda wanna know why Feeder don't keep starting fires. As 'Just A Day' pummels to the home strait, the pit seethes with wholehearted mosh-love, and everything is so much on the side of right that only a pro-Bush zombie in an abattoir wouldn't feel their heart swell. But triumph-through-tragedy or not, this is still the same band with the same flaws. If you properly hate Feeder, you're probably amisanthrope. But by the same token, if this is the acid-spitting crux of all the danger and excitement that rock'n'roll has to offer, you really should get out more.

Dan Martin