Live Review: The Horrors, Nottingham Rock City, 26 October 2011 by John Deacon

There was uncertainty surrounding The Horrors tour last week as four shows were cancelled in Edinburgh, Liverpool, Oxford and Bristol due to issues with lead-singer Faris Badwan’s voice. They successfully resumed the tour with shows in Portsmouth and Brighton without a hiccup, so Nottingham had a recovered Faris now in top form and back to his best tonight.

The band had been set to play the Rescue Rooms, until popular demand and success of most recent ‘Skying’ propelled them to headlining Rock City which was a near sell-out. They kick off with ‘Changing The Rain’ their album opener on ‘Skying.’ Faris approaches from the vast thick fog of smoke just moments before his opening vocal. The song builds up well to the euphoric key change, in which Faris’ voice sounds flawless.

Live Review: The Horrors, Nottingham Rock City, 26 October 2011

There’s a brief pause between songs but bassist Rhys Webb’s over-driven intro immediately reveals ‘Primary Colours’ single ‘Who Can Say’ which picks up the still crowd and throws them into frenzy almost, with the Mercury Award Nominated ‘Primary Colours’ album seeming to make the crowd move much more. The band maintain their momentum with next two songs ‘I Can See Through You’ and fan favourite ‘Scarlet Fields’ which sounds phenomenal live and gets the front of the crowd jumping and a reasonably large mosh pit opening towards the middle.

A couple of songs later comes ‘Endless Blue’ which has a wonderful intro of slow galloping percussion weaved with horns that sound less impressive live, but puts the crowd in trance. That’s until the two minute mark when the song explodes into crunchy guitars with energy similar to songs from their first album ‘Strange House’ which they are now so far disconnected from. The set draws to a close with crowd pleaser ‘Still Life’ which is now at the forefront of songs that fans will know every word to.

“The biggest mosh pit of the night also forms with dozens of people thrashing into each other (one of those being me).”

The Horrors leave the stage to an audience pondering whether they will re-appear for an encore. They finally come back, with noise from the crowd at an all time high for the night. The show resumes with ‘Mirrors Image’ followed by highlight of the set ‘Three Decades’ in which guitarist Joshua Hayward’s guitar playing is showcased and at it’s best. The biggest mosh pit of the night also forms with dozens of people thrashing into each other (one of those being me). The Horrors close their set with an hugely extended version of ‘Moving Further Away.’ They leave the stage with waves, a short bow from the bassist and a throw of the drum sticks hitting the rafters and into the hands of two happy fans.

With six songs from ‘Skying’ and five from ‘Primary Colours, their short set is over in just over an hour. But fans know The Horrors have always kept their sets short and sweet, it’s something they’ve done since day one and something they will probably never change. Unfortunately we will never see them play for hours and hours, and this isn’t down to not having the material to do so. It’s just how they do things.