By Nick Corr. Images by Michael Mackenzie
Great sold out show for Scotland’s Teenage Fanclub at The Croxton bandroom drawing heavily from their most recent albums.
The current line-up of Teenage Fanclub features founding members Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley, long-time collaborator Francis Macdonald (founder of Shoeshine Records) on drums, and bassist Dave McGowan. The MVP of the new line-up is keyboardist Euro Childs, the former singer/songwriter for Welsh indie-folk band Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, who pulls double-duty by acting as support act tonight, before bringing some shining keyboards and fantastic harmony vocals to the Teenage Fanclub set.
As with their last Australian tour in February 2019, the biggest loss is still founding bassist and songwriter Gerry Love and his arsenal of pop classics such as “Star Sign” and “Radio” which means Teenage Fanclub has a little less color in their palette.
That said, the band dig into their back catalog for some classics including “Alcholiday”, “The Concept” and “What You Do To Me” all from 1991’s Bandwagonesque. As is customary they dust off their first single “Everything Flows” as the show closer. It was also great to hear “Did I Say” one of the new songs Teenage Fanclub snuck onto their 2003 greatest hits collection Four Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty-Six Seconds.
The real standout tonight was the material from their most recent album 2023s Nothing Lasts Forever, in particular the softer “I Left A Light On” and “Tired of Being Alone”; as well as it’s predecessor 2021’s Endless Arcade with the show opening “Home” and a great “Everything Is Falling Apart”. It’s fantastic to see Teenage Fanclub are still writing great guitar pop-rock thirty plus years into their career.
Full Setlist:
Home
Tired of Being Alone
About You
Foreign Land
Endless Arcade
Alcoholiday
Did I Say
I Left a Light On
Falling into the Sun
Only With You
Everything Is Falling Apart
What You Do to Me
It’s a Bad World
I Don’t Want Control of You
I’m in Love
My Uptight Life
The Concept
Back in the Day
Middle of My Mind
See the Light
Everything Flows
