MUSIC
PRIMAL SCREAM
Enmore Theatre, January 11
Reviewed by GEORGE PALATHINGAL
★★★½
Just about every legacy act does this sneaky trick: floor the accelerator about two-thirds through a set with a final explosion of hits and crowd favourites, leaving the audience feeling as though they’ve been to the best gig of their lives.
There are two things to note here.
First, for Scottish veterans Primal Scream, this closing run includes some of the most euphoric songs of a generation, in the best-known trio from their earth-shattering 1991 indie/dance/chillout album masterpiece Screamadelica, plus a couple of flat-out alt-rock bangers in the irresistible hoedown of Country Girl and the unstoppable anthem Rocks. It is guaranteed: you will leave this show on the highest of highs.
Bobby Gillespie subscribes to the Bob Dylan school of singing.Credit: ©Martin Philbey
But the second, and perhaps more relevant, thing is that Primal Scream – or at least charismatic frontman Bobby Gillespie – don’t even see themselves as a legacy act. Yes, they’ve done the classic-album tours in the past; but whenever they put out something new – in this instance, last year’s Come Ahead, their first original collection since 2016 – it has often had that vital, risky spark of artists who want to challenge themselves and their audience. Remember, that’s how Screamadelica blew minds back in the proverbial day.
And so we have what proves to be a little too much latest-album work to do before we’re rewarded with what most have come to hear: some of it pulsating and terrific (the gospel-cum-disco of Ready to Go Home), some out-of-tune nonsense (including Melancholy Man, which crowd goodwill lets the band sneak into the encore), but most of it fascinating nonetheless.
You can’t completely ignore the fact Gillespie comes from the Bob Dylan school of “singing” – but that has rarely been an issue in the past 40 or so years. He does just about hold it together for the sublime I’m Losing More Than I’ll Ever Have, which is given extra soulful life by this tour’s not-so-secret weapons, the two female backing vocalists and a multi-instrumentalist (who plays jazz flute – jazz flute! – on Love Insurrection).
And when, finally, the vocal sample of Loaded (“we wanna be free/to do what we wanna do” etc) gets the party going after a couple of short-lived false starts (shout out to Jailbird), resistance is futile.
