ShareThe Streets performing their The Darker The Shadow The Brighter The Light Tour at Rock City Nottingham on Thursday 26th October 2023.
Images and Review by Kevin Cooper
To the sound of sirens and klaxons, The Streets main man, Mike Skinner, strolled onto the Rock City stage on Thursday night and plunged straight into the sold out crowd to shake hands.
His band, bass guitarist Wayne Bennett, guitarist Rob Harvey, Cassell the Beatmaker on drums and vocalist Kevin Mark Trail enthusiastically opened with Turn The Page from their 2002 debut album Original Pirate Material, and showed that there could not be any other track to open the proceedings.
Skinner had retired the band in 2011 after five albums that had successfully parlayed UK garage music to anyone that would listen, but in 2018 he came out of retirement, got his band together and released their latest album, The Darker The Shadow The Brighter The Light.
Entertaining the crowd with a perfectly balanced set list of old and new songs, the tempo was soon raised with the likes of Who’s Got The Bag and Let’s Push Things Forward. There was another cut from their seminal debut album, Don’t Mug Yourself which had the crowd singing along.
For Wrong Answers Only Skinner was joined on stage by the fantastic support act, Master Peace and the thumping bass pounded the crowd into a frenzy, whilst Too Much Yayo was spot on. Roving in and out of the crowd with mosh circles rippling around him he delivered the likes of Everything Is Borrowed, Has It Come To This? and I Wish You Loved You As Much As You Love Him to a tidal wave of delirious fans.
On The Edge Of A Cliff saw him standing on the pit rail directing the crowd like a virtuoso before main set closer Fit But You Know It cued the fans to excel at moshing. For the encore there was their mega hit, Dry Your Eyes and every fan in the building moshed for Blinded By The Lights. Finishing with the drum and bass stomp of Take Me As I Am, The Street had thoroughly entertained even if the set had been a little predictable.
