Gig Review: Spector at Rescue Rooms

“This is the fullest Rescue Rooms we've played to in years” announces charismatic Spector frontman, Fred MacPherson. “We’re at that awkward stage between selling out The Bodega, and not quite selling out Rescue Rooms. But we don’t mind that, we’re happy with our lot in life and we hope you are too.” Indeed, if you’ve listened to Spector’s brilliant new opus, Here Come The Early Nights, this seems to be Fred’s current outlook on life. With an older and wiser perspective, it seems he and guitarist Jed Cullen are simply happy they are still able to perform for a living, now ten-plus years into their career. 

Work commitments and an early start time mean we sadly don’t make it in time for opening act Mama Oh No, but we do manage to catch local rising stars Sancho Panza, who are a late call up after folk-punk band Brogéal are unable to perform. It’s immediately apparent as to why Sancho Panza have such a buzz around them already, as the Notts outfit impress with swaggering guitars and Jake Bugg-esque vocals. However, a spanner is thrown in the works when a string on frontman Jack Burton’s guitar snaps, leading to him exiting the stage briefly and the rest of the band continuing with an impromptu jam session. He then re-emerges with his guitar string still noticeably hanging off; “This will be our last song – it’s f**ked, you can’t win them all” he announces to the crowd, with their set sadly having to be cut short.

After the thirty-minute break, Spector take to the stage and immediately launch into Now or Whenever epic, An American Warehouse in London. It may have been the closing track to that record, but it also dazzles as the curtain raiser here, steadily building to a synth-soaked crescendo. Fred MacPherson then greets the crowd, but before he’s barely had time to finish, someone from the crowd yells out “SHE FANCIES YOU!” Fred, looking noticeably uncomfortable, smoothly retorts, “I’m asexual – but I’m open to friendship.” The hilariously awkward exchange segways into a duo of Here Come The Early Nights singles, Driving Home For Halloween and Another Life, which sound even better live than they do on record. 

Things are then taken up a notch, as the energised crowd bounces around to classics lifted from their run of outstanding EPs, Untitled In D and I Won’t Wait. “It may be a Tuesday night, but I want to see the same energy as if it was a Thursday or a Sunday,” Fred wittily quips, before the band launch into a euphoric rendition of Half Life. Throughout, Fred encourages the crowd to sing the “Ba dums” of the song’s synth line, to which they happily oblige. They then continue to roll out the hits, with Stay High and Funny Way of Showing It also going down a storm, before new cut Some People gets played live for only the second time ever.

There’s then a false start to Catch You On The Way Back In, as Fred needs to grab himself a Koppaberg Pear from side of stage after accidentally spilling his bottle of Birra Moretti. Once they do get going, the crowd belts out the chorus at full volume, which is also the case for Twenty Nothing and a particularly rambunctious performance of Celestine. The crowd then has a choice between hearing debut album single Never Fade Away and deep cut Reeperbahn, with the latter getting chosen. While I myself voted for the former, the majority of the crowd are ecstatic to hear the lesser-played track get a rare outing. 

With the 10pm curfew fast approaching, the band then rattle through a shimmering performance of Wild Guess, followed by Never Have Before, which sees Fred playing the song’s brass horns through his synthesizer in lieu of the physical instruments being present. It’s then time for a particularly stirring version of recent single, The Notion, which starts off slower than normal with just Fred on the synths, before Jed eventually joins in with the song’s hypnotic central riff. 

Carnage then ensues for the always biblical Chevy Thunder, which tonight sees Fred having an intensely intimate moment with a fan called Jamie on the barrier. As the two touch heads, Jamie softly sings into Fred’s microphone during the breakdown, before Fred then returns to the stage for the song’s final eruptive chorus. Rightfully forgoing the encore tradition, Fred reasons by saying: “We’re not going to patronise you by going off and making you clap us back on, you deserve the truth Nottingham. I’ve been lied to too much in my personal life, I’m not going to lie anymore in our public life.” They then close things out with a deeply cathartic performance of All The Sad Young Men, a song that feels even more important now in 2023 than it did back in 2015.

It may be recency bias, but of the three times I’ve seen Spector play at Rescue Rooms, this was the best yet. They may not have reached Rock City status during their decade-long career, but I think what’s more important to Spector these days is that they make music they’re proud of and still have a dedicated fanbase that connects with the songs. There’s a line in Never Have Before that says: “At least we’ll make a living, if we never leave a mark.” Based on the reception in Nottingham for them and my own admiration for them, I’d say they’ve certainly made a mark on a lot of people, too.

Spector performed at Rescue Rooms on 12 December 2023