Reviewed onFriday December 4
The stars were bright, the mood was right, and Custard were about to hit the stage at the Factory Theatre. The band is celebrating its quarter-century this year, and while any career is going to have its share of tricks learned and forgotten, there was a certain unevenness to Friday’s gig. Fun, but staggered. Showcasing the group’s first album in 15 years, Come Back, All Is Forgiven, certainly fuelled expectations. Yet by the end of the night it felt like something had not quite clicked. While it was big on nostalgia with some fine moments, Custard’s absence from the stage has left a mark.
They kicked things off by confidently sending two new tracks, ‘Orchids In The Water’ and ‘We Are The Parents (Our Parents Warned Us About’ into a notably hesitant audience. It took a while for the crowd to seem comfortable and start filling the Factory dancefloor, but proceedings were soon galvanised when fans in the front contributed to Matthew Strong’s first solo by beating out their excitement on the strings of his guitar, waved invitingly just above their heads.
A couple of early favourites and the audience was entirely on side, willing to forgive the handful of missed notes (though to be fair, many in the crowd also seemed a touch rusty; maybe it was where I was standing, but movement seemed pretty limited to the first few rows). A false start into ‘1990s’ signalled the return to newer material. These songs feel classic Custard, in both sound and self-referential lyrics, but it was not until ‘Music Is Crap’ and ‘The New Matthew’, with its frontman/drummer changeover, that the crowd really began to sway again.
The new songs still seemed a little jittery, with bass player Paul Medew losing the gist of his solo, resulting in some slightly awkward dead air. The crowd did not seem to mind, offering up light-hearted cat-calls as the witty Dave McCormack salvaged the moment, steering us back to firmer shores. As the night bumped along, the setlist was increasingly disregarded. By first curtain, every track from the new album was exhausted, leaving the encores to past hits and memories. The soothing ‘Anatomically Correct’ closed the night, helping wash away the slight after taste of rust.
While sometimes a little loose, the band’s informal, light-hearted attitude made this gig feel like a get-together with absent friends; new stories adding flavour to old memories.
