Trouble – and 2000 of their only friends – greet the return of the Temperance Movement
“I hope you dig rock n roll.” Simple enough words from Thomas Wynn, as his band of Believers shuffle out onstage. It is a rhetorical question, clearly, but he – and they – haven’t come to Birmingham for the first time to waste time on preamble. The Florida band are one of those outfits that defy you to pigeonhole them and then make you look stupid when you try. Built around the stunning vocal interplay between Wynn and his sister Olivia (a woman who probably finds the primal in ordering her coffee from Starbucks) they are the rock n roll band that the frontman says they are, but they are so much more besides. “I Don’t Regret” is from the heavy end of their particular scale, “Man Out Of Time” has a kind of howl about it, and whilst “Heartbreak Alley” is tinged with country, it is nonetheless that country that wants to do damage. “Wade Waist Deep” shows a different side to them again, sort of gospel infused, while the absolute highlight “We Could All Die Screaming” sees the formidable Floridians whip up a real storm. This is a long tour. When Thomas Wynn And The Believers blow through your town make sure you are there. You dig?
The Temperance Movement’s Phil Campbell is doing the band introductions. “And me?” he smiles, “I am Noddy Holder tonight.” To be fair, he has every right to feel like its christmaaasss (or something) given the news that the band’s new “A Deeper Cut” record is number three in the charts. Richly deserved too, it is marvellous and if the suggestion that it was made after a rather fraught period is probably true, then the new look band is clearly more at ease on stage than ever before based on this evidence.
Because for an hour and a half here, TTM deliver a masterclass in how to do things. The set is heavy on new stuff – brave considering “…..Cut” only came out on Friday. However these are songs that will become favourites, and anyway, the vibe is all about looking to the future. “The Way It Was And The Way It Is Now” makes this clear in its chorus: “don’t tell me how it was, just tell me how it is, now” sings Campbell, and in doing so sums up where he and his bandmates are in 2018.
That is just one of a number of new songs they play before pausing for breath, it seems. An energetic show, delivered by the frontman being part dad dancer and part dervish. In amongst all the fresh stuff, though, there’s “Be Lucky”, from the debut, which is nearly funky here. This is followed by “Ain’t No Telling” as if to say: “yeah, the past is alright if it had great tunes.”
In addition to showcasing the new material, It would be nice his tour causes a bit of a rethink on the merits of their second album, because the trio they play from it one after the other – the title track “White Bear”, “Battle Lines” and the anthemic “Three Bulliets” are enough to prove that was a superb record too.
After this it is back mostly to the new stuff. Amongst the highlights are “Built-In Forgetter” which is destined for anthem status, with “Children” which sees Campbell at the piano (“I needed a sit down”) likewise, “Higher Than The Sun” (you guess) is autobiographical, while the ending pair of a stomping “Only Friend” and the new record’s title cut is clever. Savvy, because it is the old and the new, but it is also something else. They are the reason you always thought they’d be an arena band and the reason they will be one, respectively.
After this, cleverly, they encore with the best thing “…Cut” has to offer. The Faces-esque “Blackwater Zoo” and the best thing they’ve ever done: “Midnight Black”, which is in especially tearaway form tonight.
The Temperance Movement, then. Top of the charts and getting back to the top of the tree. This time it’s going deeper.
