The Astoria, London: Live Review… Debut Album Tour…

The evening promised to be an interesting and diverse one. The Enemy has recently been enjoying an abundance of the most hallowed airplay on virtually every radio station across the country. They deal in anthemic indie of the purest form, with singalong choruses and Liamesque swaggers.

The Enemy is a young band, and only the previous week had been featured in the teen issue of The Observer Music Monthly. They have a real desire to be the greatest at what they do and with their limited experience of the world of work had already decided to reject humdrum, and push their hearts into their music to salvage some sort of future from the miserable life they saw before them. All very good on paper, but can they prove the sentiment on stage? Well they certainly have the swagger if not the natural charisma of one of their inspirations, namely Oasis.

Singer Tom was clearly with his people on the night. This is one for fellow dejected teenagers who now, more than ever, need to be able to believe in their heroes to give them the escape that kids nowadays need all too soon in their lives. The set kicks off with the vibrant ‘40 Days’ and then quickly by ‘Dancing All Night’, both of which were already hot favourites with the fans illustrated by the ovation from the crowd; with clenched fists and waving gestures from the band to bring it on and get even louder. This was fitting as next up was the glorious ‘Away From Here’ - recently a massive hit on radio and in the charts, and rightfully so. It has all the key ingredients of one of the biggest indie anthems of the past 15 years, with a chorus as vast as the Grand Canyon and no doubt generating enough fans to fill the bloody thing.

The chorus is so simple but delivered with such perfect stuttered harmony that it just drills you to where you are standing and leaves you absolutely stunned. It sums up the dim optimism of the band while not really offering a solution, just to get away, somewhere, anywhere, just away from here…

Mid-set comes the next single, the just as instant ‘Had Enough’. Not only does this combine the raw youthful energy of the band but really showcases their gift for melody and mighty grasp of finding some hope in the most pessimistic of settings. In the live arena, as with most of their songs, it is much heavier than on record, and all the better for it. Luckily, having put the 2 biggest tunes in the first half of the set didn’t daunt these guys as they knew they had strength in depth; it is remarkable just how consistently good they all are.

Andy, the bass player, spent the whole set stalking the stage like a crazed hyena, looking on enviously as kid after kid comes flying over the top of the crowd, and at a huge mosh pit that would not be out of place at a Slipknot show. In response he almost spat his vocals out in a jealous fury. If they were not playing the music they would have been down there with the sweat, beer and banging with the best of them. In fact it was a few songs before the end that he gave in and dived into the crowd (I think a little annoyed to be pulled back out by security to have to finish the set). They finished with a surefire future hit, ‘You’re Not Alone’ displaying a little more bravado and a lot more swagger, and then leave with the crowd just about ready to drop.

What appeal The Enemy will have to the wider audience is yet to be seen, but for now this is a band of youth playing for the youth. And if nothing else, they are making a lot of very disillusioned kids feel a little more positive that there are some bands who don’t give a fuck about new trends and shitty musical mixing monstrosities (that people seem to be declaring as the next big thing). The guys just want to play rock music and hope that there is a place somewhere in the future for them. On the strength of this performance I think there is.

DP