Now on their seventh album, Mancunian art-rockers Everything Everything recently returned to Notts to promote the release of their brilliant new conceptualised opus, Mountainhead. With a gig at Rock City coming up in early April, we went along to their album launch show at Rough Trade to get a taster ahead of next month…
Taking a space at the bar with just enough of a gap within the mass of people crammed into the upstairs of Rough Trade to see the stage, it seems I’m not the only one whose used their lunch break to check out some of the new material from one of Britain’s most consistent bands. It’s hard to know what to expect from a Matinee performance sometimes, but as the full band take to the stage, plug in their instruments and launch immediately into hypnotic recent single The Mad Stone, it’s clear they’re not phoning in this one.
“Hello Nottingham” says frontman Jonathan Higgs, as the band immediately launch straight into Mountainhead opening track, Wild Guess. From that point on its all business from Everything Everything, with no stopping for chatter as they belt their way through the new songs. The End of the Contender gets the crowd clapping and singing along early, whilst Buddy, Come Over and Enter The Mirror already feel like firm favourites despite only being out for a week. However, it is 2023 single Cold Reactor that gets the biggest reaction of the new songs, with Higgs’ rapid delivery of the lyrics quite dazzling to witness.
“YOU GUYS ARE F**KING AWESOME!!” I then hear screamed across the room from someone stood next to me at the bar, with one of the punters nearby clearly loving the performance. “Excuse me, there’s kids in here!” a clearly unimpressed member of the audience fires back, who does indeed have their young child on their shoulders wearing ear defenders. The person stood next to me, without missing a beat, then hilariously retorts: “WELL THEY SHOULD BE IN SCHOOL!” In what is an impressive performance from Everything Everything but one potentially lacking in memorable moments due to the nature of the set, it’s a funny diversion to the afternoon’s entertainment.
Crowd banter over, the band then start to roll out the old favourites with Teletype from 2022 album Raw Data Feel getting the crowd grooving along. They stay with that album for the always catchy, AI-inspired Pizza Boy, before they end the short but sweet set with a big singalong to Spring / Sun / Winter / Dread from their popular 2015 album, Get To Heaven. It’s also worth noting the effort put in by the deeper voiced members of the crowd who attempt to match Jonathan Higgs’ unique falsetto vocals, whilst humorously not quite managing it!
With the Mountainhead material sounding fantastic and the Notts crowd in attendance at Rough Trade typically lively, the ingredients are there for a special night when Everything Everything return to Nottingham next month for a full show at Rock City. With Notts’ own Divorce set to support too, it might be time to get your tickets sorted if you haven’t already.
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