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Review: The Pineapple Thief, O2 Academy
From the Fleece to the Bierkeller, SWX and now the Academy, it’s been a long and occasionally gruelling upward trajectory for Yeovil’s finest. Their reward is the knowledge that each and every one of these hard-won supporters is no fairweather fan who’ll disappear once the next media-driven fad comes along.
For some time now, The Pineapple Thief have been approaching a tipping point where their vast potential audience – essentially anyone who enjoys music along the lengthy spectrum from Floyd and Genesis to Radiohead and Mogwai – become aware of what they’ve been missing out on.
is needed now More than ever
This ‘homecoming’ show at the end of an 18 date tour saw PT on ferociously excellent, road-hardened form. There is, of course, absolutely nothing wrong with flashy, virtuoso prog-rock, but that’s not where these guys’ heads are at. Instead, their songs are sometimes deceptively simple, with a lot going on beneath the bonnet. Exhibit A: Gavin Harrison, deservedly one of the UK’s most lauded drummers, whose recruitment kicked the whole band up a notch.
As usual, Harrison’s kit is positioned to one side of the stage, rather than at the back in the traditional configuration, and it’s easy to see why drum nerds come to Pineapple Thief shows just to watch him play. His intricate technique is quite mesmerising without ever calling attention to itself, subtly freighting founder Bruce Soord’s often melancholic, introspective songs with tension, augmented by complementary straightforward yet effective lighting design.
They open with the title track of current album Versions of the Truth; one of the many PT songs that feel both personal and intimate while hinting at broader, occasionally political meanings for the listener to unpick. Four other songs from the album get an airing tonight, underlining the diversity of the collection.
Demons is one of Soord’s most beautiful and catchy compositions, ranking alongside Threatening War from Dissolution and In Exile from Your Wilderness – both of which are also in the set. At the other end of the sonic scale, Break It All sees them at their most dark and propulsive.
To perform this stuff live requires an additional guitar player. Previously, they’ve used Godsticks’ Darran Charles. This time, it’s a fella named Beren Matthews, who’s new to most of us. What’s more, Bruce reveals that the poor chap’s dad is down the front. No pressure then.
Turns out he’s definitely a keeper, handling the lead guitar ceded by the frontman with aplomb. Perhaps more importantly, his vocals mesh perfectly with those of Bruce and bassist Jon Sykes (ear-defenders firmly in place as usual – apparently it’s to protect what’s left of his hearing after a mis-spent heavy metal youth) to conjure up those glorious CSN-style harmonies that have become such a key part of recent compositions.
Old-skool proggers among the audience are rewarded with the likes of an epic White Mist, while the encore opens with a delve back into the mists of time (2003) for Part Zero – the most conventionally prog song in the band’s current repertoire, which has actually aged rather well. The gorgeous The Final Thing on My Mind is an obvious closer, inviting rapturous applause. But they follow this with a thunderous Nothing At Best, giving keyboard player Steve Kitch, who’s perched atop his own podium, an opportunity to grab the limelight.
There may not have been much competition, owing to “you know what” as Bruce repeatedly refers to it, but something pretty spectacular will have to come along to match this when it comes to handing out those Gig of the Year accolades.
All pix by Mike Evans
Read more: Metal & Prog Picks: November 2021
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