If they’re weary, you can’t tell. On (pls) set me on fire, Rou, guitarist Rory Clewlow and bassist Chris Batten jump from foot to foot as if the entire stage is a massive griddle pan. The Void Stares Back comes at us with managed, technical force, a contrast to the comparatively restrained, rap-fuelled Undercover Agents that precedes it.
Then there’s the voluminous electro rock pill that is The Flick Of A Switch I, filled with space age sounds, almost mesmeric. A track from this year’s Lose Your Self album, it proves that if Rou and the boys are indeed leaving us, they’re doing it via a series of victory rolls. The Last Garrison then uplifts and unites.
That’s all before they decamp to a tiny B stage near the back of the arena for a three-song mini-set. It’s a treat for those in the ‘cheap’ seats and a nod towards the tiny stages they played two decades ago, such as the downstairs room at Rock City across town. Back on the main stage, Higher Ground and {The Dreamer’s Hotel} draw matters toward a finale in jubilant, if emotive, fashion.
It’s less about shaking arena foundations than it is about inspiring people to simply lose themselves and dance. They dance like there’s no tomorrow, because just maybe, there isn’t.