Young Galaxy
This was the set that I have been waiting for from Young Galaxy. Since I've known them they have made beautiful synthy records and then cranked their live shows to drum-blowing 11's and attempted to overpower with noise. What gives? Well this Saturday afternoon, as the weather attempted a turn to the sun, I finally got what I was after. And it was just in time too, as they would reveal, but not until prior to the last song, that this would be their parting show with their bassist, Stephen Kemp, after some eight years of faithful allegiance. If I hadn't seen this I would have thought he was the one to pin the loudness on!
Beginning with Peripheral Visionaries their visibly pregnant front lady, Catharine McCandless, sang it out with her emotive posturing and alongside her lead male counterpart, Stephen Ramsay, they carried into other favourites Cover Your Tracks and Pretty Boy. Without knowing what was on the go I noticed that Kemp was rather charismatic and flashing smiles with bandmates. Exchanging broad grins with their female drummer, Andrea Silver, he also had a bit of a showdown with Ramsay and was flashing smiles all around. Not only did they all seem to be playing for the moment but the setlist was also great such as In Fire, New Summer and a certain set highlight, the clapalong on Fall for You. When they did make the announcement the emotions got the best of a few of them as a couple of tears were shed, extending the intro until Catharine could compose herself to sing the lyrics. During the appropriately-titled closer We Have Everything Stephen and Stephen got together again and in the process displaced the guitarist's sunglasses which he promptly tossed to the stage. That was nothing though, as visibly overwhelmed while the last note hung in the amp he lightly tossed his guitar and turned to exit the stage before crashed. The feedback hung, as did the instant nostalgia, in this expectation-defying lovely summer set and fitting goodbye.
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