Review: Energy and mischief as Super Furry Animals play at York Museum Gardens
In some cases, seeing a reunited veteran band play in front of the ancient ruins of St Mary’s Abbey in the verdant botanical gardens surrounding the York Museum could trigger an irresistible urge to draw parallels between the ravages of time visited on the band and the surrounding medieval structures.
There is no need for that tonight.
Super Furry Animals exhibit seemingly inexhaustible reserves of energy and mischief during the solitary Yorkshire date of their second reunion tour (which also features sets from Pys Melyn, Divorce, Los Campesinos! and Baxter Dury, whose nocturnal club lizard persona turns out to also thrive during daytime hours), belying the fact it has been over fifteen years since the beloved Welsh five-piece (expanded tonight by an extra percussionist) downed tools as an active band.
With no new material in the works, the 90-minute show (brought forward by a certain global sporting event) is essentially a victory lap for the band’s most enduring songs, evidencing a range and resonance that is likely to convert any curious onlookers in the sizable crowd – ranging from dedicated old fans who recognise each tune from the first bar to people young enough to have been toddlers when SFE’s last album landed in 2009 – to instant fans.
The initial breathless gallop through half a dozen back catalogue gems makes you wonder how a band with tunes as sharp as the sturdy glam boogie of Golden Retriever and the pulsating power-pop of opener (Drawing) Rings Around The World never quite transcended their cult band status.
Then Super Furry Animals rev up the endearingly eccentric playfulness that must qualify as the polar opposite of the strategic careerism that helps to maintain an upward trajectory.
The prettily chiming heartache of Hello Sunshine is brought to a (thankfully temporary) halt after the first verse: “we’re just soundchecking here,” singer and guitarist Gruff Rhys quips.
The lush soul balladry of Juxtaposed with U finds Rhys duetting with a disfigured mutant version of himself thanks to a heroic dose of pitch-shifting vocoder.
There are decidedly DIY props dusted off from the band’s storage unit: an applause-generating board (maximum setting: apes***), a section that finds Rhys singing through the air-vent of a makeshift astronaut helmet, even a bunch of fresh celery that Rhys crunches on-mic during Receptable for the Respectable.
All of which pales next to the finale.
The band leave the stage halfway through the Steely Dan-sampling all-purpose rock/electronica protest anthem The Man Don’t Give a F***, returning to reignite the expletive-laden singalong fan favourite (and inevitable set closer) in yeti costumes that are appropriately furry for the band but heroically unsuited for the week’s heatwave.
Rhys and guitarist Huw Bunford remain on stage after the song’s central loop finally winds down to soak up the applause at the end of a by turns poignant and joyous performance which proves that Super Furry Animals are far from a nostalgia-laden museum piece.