There was something volcanic about Future of the Left’s show last night. The sweltering heat in a tightly packed crowd and the smell of bushfire smoke in the air contributed, but the fierce, white-hot rock that erupted from the stage was the main factor. The band channelled something primitive, Andy Falkous straddling the stage like some patriarchal primeval, a shaved gorilla unleashing ragged, enraged music upon a sweaty, joyous crowd.
The darkly witty banter that defines a typical Future of the Left gig was sparse. Perhaps the heat had weakened the spirits of these Welshmen, or maybe the Ashes were to blame; Falkous did find time to direct some invective at David Warner. But the set – with a strong representation from How to Stop Your Brain in an Accident alongside earlier tracks and Mclusky “covers” – didn’t betray any sense of defeat. It was triumphant and tyrannical.
Kazoo solos aside, the best moment of a Future of the Left set is always the loose, improvisational, glorious nonsense that is their last song, here a brutal amalgamation of “Singing of the Bonesaws,” “Lapsed Catholics” and “Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues” that spiralled into deconstructed drum sets and fountains of foamy beer and white-knuckle anarchy.