Live Review: The The @ Palais Theatre, Melbourne

This weekend, fans in Melbourne were treated to The The, who kicked off the Australian leg of their Ensoulment world tour. The band, with a storied history dating back to the 1980s, is a vehicle for Matt Johnson's musical explorations.

Over the years, The The has featured a stellar lineup of rotating musicians. While these artists have all helped to craft the overall sound of the band, it is Matt Johnson's thoughtful songwriting that comes at us with well-observed personal, social, and political commentary that shapes the The The experience delivered tonight.

In deep and pleasantly dulcet tones that brings to mind singers like Stuart Staples, Johnson reminded us that iPhones belong in our pockets. Tonight's show was not a visual extravaganza designed to feed Insta with eye candy. Instead, The The presented as an elemental five-piece that drew on their musicianship to work like a well-oiled machine to deliver a show that lasted more than a couple of hours.

The setlist is epic and divided into two parts. The first runs for an hour and showcases the band's latest album, Ensoulment, in its entirety. It is the first album The The has released in 25 years, and it could signal a phase of renaissance, or it may be their final album. It is usually a case of ‘we like your old stuff better than your new stuff’ with some audiences, but knowing that they would treat us to old favourites soon enough, the crowd indulged The The as they faithfully replicated Ensoulment.

The vibe of this album is straight-up downtempo chill that is enshrouded in deep, ominous atmospheres that elegantly shimmer in shades of fear and paranoia. Interestingly, much of these tunes stray into Pet Shop Boys territory where the lyrics feel more spoken than sung, but Johnson’s vibe tends towards ominous and sinister.

The world filtered through Johnson’s mind feels nightmarishly dark. The charming sway and underlying perceptiveness of Some Days I Drink My Coffee by the Grave of William Blake, like much of Ensoulment, is entrancing, but he also tends towards the didactic and deals in seething political diatribe which is somewhat blunted by pop song format and tempered by personal reflection.

It is noir in glorious shades of black as he contemplates the downfall of empire on Kissing The Ring Of POTUS. Similarly, Zen & the Art of Dating reflects on loneliness and desire in the context of alienating online dating techniques. It all feels a little bleak, but the philosophical reflection of Where Do We Go When We Die? and A Rainy Day in May softens the end of this set with more personal melancholy meditations.

Although the sound of The The has shifted to something that approximates Portishead collaborating with Tom Waits if he had never smoked or drank, the themes Johnson is seemingly obsessed with are the same as the ones he sang about in the eighties. It feels as though he is on the endless lyrical loop of ‘If you can't change the world. Change yourself. And if you can't change yourself, change the world,’ which featured on Lonely Planet later in the evening.

After a short interval, the second set aimed to relive the band’s glory days with a selection of some of their most iconic tunes. They take us back to a time when writers could type The The without fearing the dreaded and hugely annoying ‘delete repeated word’ error message. Playing the classics for long-time fans can be tricky as there will always be songs they want to hear but which don’t make the setlist. On this front, Perfect and Out Of The Fire (And Into The Blue) were obvious omissions, but material from their new album treads similar territory but updated for the twenty-first century.

Nonetheless, they started with Infected, which, with a new arrangement, was presented with a lighter kind of jangle pop vibe, and the angular intensity of the original wasn't really there. It was an interesting approach that had fans cheering, but the snarl of the original was conspicuously absent. The pace picked up with Armageddon Days Are Here (Again). Inspired by the politics of Thatcher and Reagan, it is implied that we have collectively barely taken a step forward in all that time. It's hard to believe The Sinking Feeling was recorded 41 years ago and is perhaps even more relevant today than ever before.

The indie rockers of the eighties now fifty and sixty something year olds cheered for and danced along to songs like Heartland, Love Is Stronger Than Death, Slow Emotion Replay, and Sweet Bird of Truth, all of which were notable set list highlights. The sweet vibes of This Is The Day feels as good as a glorious ray of sunshine. These songs almost perfectly showcase Matt Johnson’s considerable talent for songwriting and his capacity to entertain while delivering thought-provoking social commentary.

By the end of the night, the crowd is amped for encores and feeding off the audience’s energy, The The unleash an exhilarating extended version of Uncertain Smile, complete with cascading piano melodies that occupy the very centre of the mix.

Johnson's patter in between songs has been a little forgettable all evening, but he seems energized when talking about the band’s landmark album, Soul Mining. His brother painted the image that features on the front cover. The woman he painted was Fela Kuti’s wife, who is seen smoking a joint. In awe of this painting, Johnson tells us that he wanted GIANT to sound like the colours of the album's cover. GIANT bounced, wearing its no-wave and afrobeat influences on its sleeve.

Johnson proclaims that he is ‘scared of God and scared of Hell’ while insistent and frenetic rhythms take over. The surge of energy in the auditorium even reached us in the upper limits of the Palais. Johnson's anxiety is overtaken as the crowd helps out with the tribal chanting that brings everyone to their feet as they relive a truly iconic moment from the eighties. It is a moment of transcendence in these fractured times.