Therapy? / Triggerfinger / Thirty Six Strategies [Live Review – The Scala, London, 1/4/2015]
This wasn’t so much a show as a celebration. Judging from the pre-show chatter, Therapy have been very sorely missed – and when their set came around, it was easy to see why. Before that, Thirty Six Strategies opened the night up with a set that was cool and passionate, although to be totally honest the music felt too safe. That may seem an odd word to use in the context of punk-oriented rock, but the fact is that thousands of bands are pursuing exactly the same direction as Thirty Six Strategies right now. As instrumentalists, TSS are good, and their lyrics hint at tough, hard-knock experiences – but given that no two life experiences are precisely the same, it would be awesome to hear those experiences expressed in an idiosyncratic way with a generous helping of weirdness.
It’s one thing to refuse to conform to the standards of mainstream society – but it’s a whole other game to break away from the standards of literally everyone else, and forge your own 100% individual path. That’s where the best, most timeless and relevant music gets made – and Thirty Six Strategies certainly have the potential to push into that area.
Triggerfinger were explosive, and one of the most Read more…
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