I’ve loved Nation of Language since their first album, but for various reasons relating to the pandemic and my health, I wasn’t able to see them live until now. I’m sad it took four album cycles to make it happen!
Westerman opened the show. He was joined by one backing musician, Daniel McIntyre, who handled backing tracks, synths, and some guitar. Westerman himself played electric or acoustic guitar on most songs and of course sang. His songs felt a bit sparse, and they rarely trascended their singer-songwriter trappings. The highlight was a song where Daniel played with some sort of ebow-like sustain on his guitar for a really cool and noisy swell effect. Their final number was the only one with an actual drum machine beat, which injected some much needed juice into the song. Otherwise I found them to be rather plainly in the middle of the road with little to hold my attention. The cocaine vibes weren’t helping.
[Nation of Language.]
Nation of Language were thankfully another story. They had the benefit of a better light show on top of the stack of synths and a great bassist, and Ian Richard Devaney’s voice was in top form. They opened with the opener of their new album Dance Called Memory, “Can’t Face Another One”, and while it’s obviously an emotionally heavy song and not their most upbeat musically, it still already burst with life and energy compared to Westerman’s set. They ultimately played half of the new album, all of which worked well on stage. I loved the My Bloody Valentine-style glide guitar on “I’m Not Ready for the Change”, although I missed the Cocteau Twins-style guitar of “Now That You’re Gone”. They also played half of their last album, Strange Disciple (2023), and while I find it their weakest album so far, the live renditions were just as good as the rest.
They also played a handful songs from their first two albums, some of which (“September Again”, “Across That Fine Line”) worked like classic synthpop anthems. Just about every song was a winner. Aidan Noell’s programming and synths carried most of the weight, but I loved the pulsing drive of Alex MacKay’s Peter Hook-style, chorus-laden bass. Devaney’s occasional guitar was usually just a bit of extra texture, although on occasion (like “In Your Head”) he let loose with a louder storm of noise, and he also occasionally drifted over to the synth rack and added a part alongside Noell. The biggest (or perhaps only) surprise came during the encore when Noell came to the center of the stage to perform “Sharevari”, a Number of Names cover that she recorded (with LCD Soundsystem’s Nancy Whang) for a single in 2022. Devaney and MacKay operated the synths and offered backing chorus vocals. That made for quite a change of mood into a more straight techno direction. I wouldn’t have enjoyed a full set of that, but for one song it was a welcome addition.
I’ve always accused Nation of Language of drawing heavily upon their forebears like OMD and New Order, and while I like that they’ve brought some new influences to their latest album, their live set still stays pretty true to the mold. I can’t even complain, though, because I love what they do, and they brought such a consistent and solid version of it to the show. The grooves were great and they brought a great energy to the parts that weren’t programmed. The crowd was dancing the whole time, myself included. It was a lot of fun!
Here’s the setlist (with help from here):
01. Can’t Face Another One
02. Sole Obsession
03. Rush & Fever
04. I’m Not Ready for the Change
05. Under the Water
06. September Again
07. On Division St
08. Wounds of Love
09. A New Goodbye
10. Across That Fine Line
11. Inept Apollo
12. Stumbling Still
13. In Your Head
Encore:
14. Spare Me the Decision
15. Sharevari [A Number of Names cover]
16. Weak in Your Light
17. The Wall & I
Scores:
Westerman: C-
Nation of Language: A-
Dance Called Memory: B+
Thanks to Mirah!
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