The The – Live at Alexandra Palace review

It’s arguably the most poignant moment of an evening that hums with reciprocity between artist and audience: visibly moved, Matt Johnson pauses between songs to comment on what has proven to be an enduring bond, reflecting “We’ve grown up together. And now we’re growing old together”.

Not everyone at the Alexandra Palace tonight was born before the release of 1993’s metaphysical Dusk, but if deteriorating eyesight is a fair judge, most it seems were. Whilst since for Johnson there have been infrequent records, films and shows, the symbolism of here, a place with such panoramic views of his cherished London’s skyline and with its scale, is hardly lost on anyone trooping up the steep incline from the station to its front doors.

Tickets come with a stern but sincere warning about the use of phones – largely honoured – but if in truth spectacle is lacking, then still no amount of sneakily captured video footage could tell the night’s story on the terms it deserves.

Split into two segments, the first part is a faithful play through of Ensoulment, released only a few weeks earlier and which is in form the most human and personal of Johnson’s existential odyssey.

Informed by experiences that could’ve embittered many, we’re reminded that with the ageing process comes loss, the singer mentioning the passing of his father during the introduction to Where Do We Go When We Die?, but here the question is posed with the curiosity of a man with a more urgent need to understand the answer than four decades ago.

Ensoulment may be the last The The album based on history, but the crowd haven’t really had the time to love it yet. It’s the concluding half of the show that answers any questions however about whether there’s life in these some thousand old dogs yet.

There’s a skill to curating these retrospectives – ask Robert Smith – and whilst almost anything from this illustrious back catalogue would’ve been greeted rapturously, by dint of what’s included, Johnson is no believer in simple victory laps.

This dig your own crates approach is evident from the start via a ratatat, hard smacking version of Infected, but as the anthology unwinds attention is paid to all points, from the earliest days (Burning Blue Soul’s Icing Up) to the stagnated career mid-point (Nakedself’s The Whisperers).  In between the singer is avuncular, regaling the crowd of formative years spent taking advantage of unemployment benefits (‘a sort of art school grant’), before segueing into the Cajun reel of This Is the Day, it’s use unraveled as a metaphor for keeping faith in your dreams.

No matter how hard you wrestle with modern dynamics, some things never change, with the audience lustily singing Heartland’s refrain about Britain’s subservience to one Imperialist power or another, whilst Armageddon Days Are Here Again has never lost its topical prescience.

It’s an outward darkness that has always existed in Johnson’s music, but despite his tendency to embrace alienation first, the earthbound gaze of closer Lonely Planet offers by contrast a warmth and connectedness, prompting in turn an unlikely singalong moment.

Whilst choosing the encores will not have caused too much angst, delivering them is an altogether different thing indeed. On the one hand it’s almost impossible not to make the effervescent and timeless Uncertain Smile an air-pianoing, wayback machine joy, but here the erstwhile DC Collard nails the section originally set down by Jools Holland to within an inch of its pounded keys and beyond. Finally, Giant is just that; with one more exhortation for the crowd to participate, the evening is over without fuss, an understated triumph which it would seem ridiculous to describe as a comeback.

The recipe for happiness and success in rock n’ roll was set out here – and is foolproof. One, write brilliant songs. Second, bring with you an audience with whom you can share love, pain, death, birth and a thousand other cumulative scars that are eventually worn like badges. Matt Johnson has done both, and on this evidence neither party are refusing to grow old gracefully.     

Note – the featured picture was the only image taken by the author of the evening.