Photo Credit: Tom Forrester
Before Feeder take to the stage, an immense and impressive LED display comes to life. The melancholic angel from the cover of Comfort in Sound moves mournfully across the LED screen. In essence, the album is being brought to life in every aspect.
Feeder hit the stage, and get straight into Just the Way I’m Feeling. Bringing none of the keyboard or synth effects from the studio recording, Singer and guitarist Grant Nicholas, bassist Taka Hirose, and drummer Karl Brazil choose to beef up the sound with the addition of live second guitarist Tommy Gleeson. The cleanly strummed verses still pack an emotional weight, but the pounded power chords of the chorus hit extra hard.
Nicholas’ microphone is drowned out slightly by the guitars and industrial fans onstage, but the mix is sorted quickly, and this is far from an issue. Come Back Around follows with even more bombastic gusto, again fleshed out with the extra guitar. Similarly, Helium delivers a thicker, fuzzier tone live than it does on the record. The raw, essentials-only setup juxtaposes nicely with the elaborate and impressive lighting rig, which displays moving (literally) album artwork and relevant images and photographs throughout the set.
The back-to-basics guitar indie setup amps up the aggression of tracks such as Godzilla, but brings an intimacy to others, such as Forget About Tomorrow and Quick Fade. Their grungy alt rock roots shine through on Moonshine, it sounds both like a product of the turn of the millennium, yet remains timeless.
The main set closes with the LEDs showing an image of founding drummer Jon Lee. A heart-warming, and non-showy tribute, which is a touching and fitting end to an excellent album playthrough. The main set is light on between song banter, but as Nicholas freely admits, the band want to let the music do the talking. An album played in its entirety can convey more humour, heartbreak and life stories than forced jokes ever could.
Conversely, the encore allows for more fun, and for Feeder to allow their personality to shine through. There’s much more audience interaction and fun in the encore. Nicholas begins the encore by coming out alone with an acoustic guitar, leading the crowd in a sing-along to High. Elongating choruses and stepping away from the mic to let the crowd take over adds to the celebratory nature of the evening.
There’s a surprise when former drummer Mark Richardson joins on drums for the Pushing the Senses era tracks, adding more bombast to these tracks, when compared to the more measured approach of Brazil. As the show is brought to a crescendo with the dual fan favourites of Buck Rogers and Just a Day, it feels that both the original set and the encore were given the very different energy they deserve, by both band and audience.
As a nostalgia piece, and a Feeder gig, this couldn’t have gone much better. No songs performed here are younger than twenty years old, which provides a snapshot of this era of Feeder perfectly. The new yet old approach to the songs on Comfort in Sound, combined with the light show and artistic scenes, captures the wistful essence of the album.
Comfort in Sound marked a turning point for Feeder, as they stood at a crossroads between embracing the softer tones of British indie-rock, like many of their contemporaries, or staying true to their rawer, alt-rock roots. On this album and its follow-up, Pushing the Senses, they experimented with both styles and ultimately discovered that while they could handle either, their true passion and strength lay in the latter.
A quarter of a century ago, Feeder faced their toughest moment as a band, and produced a masterpiece. Here’s to many more decades of Comfort in Sound, and the band that made it.
Written By: Tom Forrester
