On November 24, 1994, nine months on from the release of their critically-acclaimed and commercially-successful second album Troublegum, Therapy? were booked to play at the inaugural MTV Europe Music Awards in Berlin, joining global superstars Prince, Aerosmith, George Michael and Take That on the evening's cast of performing artists. In another acknowledgement of their rising profile, the Larne trio were also nominated for two awards, Breakthrough Artist and Best Rock Artist, the latter category completed by Metallica, Rage Against The Machine, Soundgarden, and Aerosmith. Given that they'd originally coalesced around a shared love of the noisiest US alt. rock, Belgian New Beat, underground hip-hop, Captain Beefheart, and free jazz, none of this was ever in the game plan for the “three chubby hicks from the sticks”, as frontman Andy Cairns once described his band, with typically self-deprecating dry wit.
As if the occasion was not already sufficiently surreal for Therapy?, as Cairns, bassist Michael McKeegan and drummer Fyfe Ewing (plus guest cellist/future full-time band member Martin McCarrick) took up their positions onstage for their scheduled live performance of Die Laughing, the show's producers introduced a bizarre link featuring an interview with Jarvis Cocker, for which Pulp's vocalist was asked to pretend to be Andy Cairns. Whatever inspired this baffling editorial decision - perhaps it sounded like a hilarious wheeze to someone on the broadcast team while slug-sized lines of premium-purity gak were being hoovered backstage - it was weird, the segment's 'comedy' nadir coming when Cocker/'Cairns' exclusively revealed that the next album from the Irish band would be... a concept album about potatoes.
Potatoes. And this from Britpop's sharpest, most erudite and wittiest personality. It's perhaps unwise to ascribe too much significance to any single incident in any artist's career, but, leaning heavily on hindsight, perhaps this - rather than the fact they left Berlin empty-handed - was an indicator that Therapy?'s probationary membership of the music industry's Next Big Thing club would soon expire, never to be reauthorised.
For those with only the most basic knowledge of Therapy?, or those with the propensity to measure the value of art purely via the metrics of capitalist consumption, that night in Berlin, viewed by millions across Europe, could be retrospectively deemed the peak of Therapy?'s career. There may also be former executives of A&M Records who look back upon the evening as a missed opportunity for a band they had hoped to groom and develop, as Andy Cairns has often reflected, into The New Metallica, regardless of the band's own ambitions, intentions or wishes.
That these bullish predictions were swiftly revised upon the arrival of 1995's Infernal Love has in no way diminished the affection in which Troublegum is held, 30 years on from its release. That it is commonly regarded as Therapy?'s most widely-loved album helps account for the fact that this celebratory 30th anniversary tour is being staged, in more than one city, in venues significantly larger than those which hosted shows on the band's Cold Hard Fire tour one year ago. At one point, mid-set, Michael McKeegan informs the audience that on November 26, 1994, Therapy? kicked off one UK tour in support of Troublegum in this very venue, and asks if anyone present was also here on that night. In response, approximately half of tonight's ticket-holders raise their hands. It's a remarkable, and surprisingly emotional sight.
While it's not accurate to say that Troublegum is the trio's definitive recording - in truth its perfectly-realised synthesis of punk, metal and indie makes it something of an outlier in a 16-album catalogue more often showcasing Cairns' deep-rooted and ever-evolving love of left-field, experimental, boundary-pushing outsider art - its impact upon, and importance to, those here tonight makes for an electric atmosphere that is undeniable. Therapy?'s music was changing lives before 1993's brilliant Shortsharpshock E.P, featuring Screamager, crashed into the UK Top 10, but when you observe one decidedly over-excitable forty-something making his fourth crowd-surf into the arms of the stage-front security team before Brainsaw, song seven on the setlist, has been completed, it's reminder how much these songs mean to people. Which is as it should be, for Unbeliever - that riff! - Nowhere, Turn, Trigger Inside, Knives - that chorus! - and Lunacy Booth remain every bit as powerful, intense and relevant as they ever did, and sound absolutely incredible here tonight.
After euphoric set-closer Screamager, as the house lights go up, a friend I haven't seen for maybe 15 years, suddenly materialises on the lowest tier balcony, waving, with a smiling teenage boy by her side. "This is my son," she shouts over. "It's his first gig!" It's a sweet moment, and it's hard to imagine any musical journey starting with a more joyous experience.
Therapy? - Shepherds Bush Empire, London November 16, 2024
Stop It You're Killing Me
Isolation ( Joy Division cover)
Totally Random Man
Turn
Auto Surgery
Trigger Inside
Brainsaw
Unrequited
Unbeliever
Femtex
Hellbelly
Opal Mantra
Die Laughing
Lunacy Booth
Breaking the Law ( Judas Priest cover)
Nowhere
Nausea
Meat Abstract
Accelerator
Potato Junkie (with drum solo / Iron Man snippet)
Teethgrinder
Knives
Screamager
