Brooklyn Vegan Live Review: THE THE at The Beacon Theatre

Matt Johnson set up the night when he took to the stage at Beacon Theatre, saying he was very happy to be back in New York, which he considers to be his second hometown. On this tour, The The would be playing Ensoulment, their first album in a quarter century, in full during the first set, which he also called the “seated” set, then they would return to “travel back in time” for a second set dubbed “retrospective” where people could “dance on the chairs and sing along.” I didn’t see anybody dancing on their seats — and I’m sure Beacon Theatre’s ushers would’ve shined a flashlight on them and told them to get down if they did — but Thursday was a great evening of new music and lots of The The classics.

Ensoulment is a terrific album and its atmospheric, blues vibe sounded great at Beacon Theatre, a room that is really built for this kind of nuanced playing and Matt Johnson’s low whisper. Highlights of the set were the soaring “Life After Life” and “Rising Above the Need,” the album’s two real pop songs that are two of many showcases for Barrie Cadogan’s facile guitar playing. (He was the night’s secret sauce.) The whole record sounded great and I also really enjoyed the funny “Zen & The Art of Dating,” the beautiful “Where Do We Go When We Die?,” and pointed but playful “Kissing the Ring of POTUS” which was one of many politically minded songs we’d get Thursday night.

As Matt told us in our interview, many of The The’s most political songs from the ’80s are sadly still relevant today, maybe moreso, and he did not shy away from playing them. Introing “Heartland” (from 1986’s Infected), he said the song was written when England was under the thumb of “a wicked witch named Thatcher” but that now many people look back at the time as a “golden era.” They also played Mind Bomb‘s “Armageddon Days Are Here Again” and Infected‘s “Sweet Bird of Truth,” both of which are at least partially about the Middle East. It wasn’t all doom and gloom; Johnson always peppers his postulating with humor, and he and his fantastic band were all in good spirits and they didn’t shy away from their big pop hits, either. We got a wonderful, reimagined version of “Slow Emotion Replay” that was played primarily on ’80s electronic instrument The Omnichord in the style of the original version of “This is the Day,” a song which they then played next. Matt also noted that they shot the “Slow Emotion Replay” video in NYC and playing the song always makes him think of here.

The “Retrospective” main set also included “Infected,” which kicked things off in high gear, plus Soul Mining deep cut “The Sinking Feeling,” Dusk‘s “Dogs of Lust,” Mind Bomb‘s “August & September,” and “Icing Up” from Johnson’s 1981 solo album Burning Blue Soul (which has now been retroactively pulled into the The The discography). Johnson, who came out from behind his signature three-mic setup for more of the set than I thought he would, sounded fantastic.

Set 2 ended with “Lonely Planet” from Dusk, but they returned for an encore with two of their best songs. “Uncertain Smile” was a showcase for keyboardist DC Collard, who recreated Jools Holland’s incredible piano solo from the original recording but brought a lot of his own flavor to it as well, and then the night closed with Soul Mining‘s nine-minute crescendo “Giant” (maybe my favorite The The song) whose pounding rhythms were a workout for drummer Chris Whitten. (Longtime The The bassist James Eller was great as always.) “Giant” hasn’t been in The The setlists for 35 years so it was a real treat to finally get to hear it live. A new The The album and “Giant” back in rotation? What a year.

Check out photos by Stephanie F. Black (which also include a few shots from the 10/15 show at Philadelphia’s The Fillmore) and the Beacon Theatre setlist below.

See photos here.