THE FUTUREHEADS // NORTHUMBRIA INSTITUTE, NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE
THE FUTUREHEADS RETURN TO NEWCASTLE PLAYING THEIR DEBUT ALBUM IN FULL!
THE FUTUREHEADS PERFORMING AT NEWCASTLE’S NORTHUMBRIA INSTITUTE - 13.12.19
PICTURE BY: WILL GORMAN PHOTOGRAPHY
★★★★☆ (4/5)
The Futureheads attract a wide demographic of people to their shows. There’s people who were listening to the band’s eponymous debut when they were a teenager here tonight, standing alongside those who’ve probably accidentally discovered The Futureheads through their dad’s CDs in the car. Regardless of age, everyone in the crowd is nothing short of attentive for these (nearly) hometown heroes. The band come out looking and sounding surprisingly fresh for a band 15 years into their career. They easily go toe to toe with their eager and youthful support bands for enthusiasm, though at this point, at a hometown show, The Futureheads have absolutely nothing to prove to the nearly full room in front of them.
Playing an album front to back is always a tricky task with the tendency for front-heavy singles to come and go too soon but The Futureheads manage to maintain their energetic delivery and the audience’s attention through all 16 songs of their debut, with their seminal hit cover ‘Hounds of Love’ coming as the penultimate song of the main set.
Of course it wouldn’t be a December show if there wasn’t a Christmas song to be seen and The Futureheads came prepared with their own song ‘Christmas was better in the 80s’ and even if only half the crowd are old enough to attest to such a fact, all of them are more than willing to have a sing along.They end on ‘The Beginning of the Twist’ and pull out all the stops for this big finale. As The Futureheads walk off stage four minutes and several ‘thank you’s’ later a lot of the older crowd are quietly nodding to themselves. It seems The Futureheads are worth the seven year wait after all.