Renegades
Millennium Music Hall, Cardiff
19/04/2010

Feeder have been in existence for eighteen years. Eighteen. Feeling as old and decrepit as The Fly is now? Good. A misery shared is a misery made marginally more bearable.

Confusingly enough, this isn’t actually a review of Feeder. Renegades, which comprises Grant Nicholas and Taka Hirose (singer/guitarist and bassist from Feeder, respectively) alongside Ben’s Brother drummer Karl Brazil, is an entirely separate entity, created when Brazil stood in on Feeder rhythm duties following the departure of Mark Richardson last year. Having said that, the band has made no secret of its aim to recreate the early Feeder sound and judging by the large majority of the crowd at Renegades’ Cardiff date, a Renegades fan is a Feeder fan.

As for the music – well, we’d forgotten how much we liked the early Feeder sound and Renegades remind us of all that was good about it. It’s meatier, ballsier and dirtier than you could be forgiven for expecting in the light of Feeder’s most recent offerings. Even the dips into the Feeder back catalogue have a raw new energy – ‘Tangerine’ in particular takes the roof off and sits more than comfortably with its new set list mates, which receive a similarly ecstatic crowd response. The band makes the most of the opportunity to thrash about like a teen band playing their first ever gig and the best thing about it is that none of it seems forced; just loads of fun.

In between tunes, Nicholas observes “this new Renegades stuff has made our old Feeder stuff feel so much more relevant.” A slightly cringe-worthy sentiment, but we know what he means. There may not be any dazzling breakthroughs in terms of musical innovation but as a straightforwardly enjoyable gig, it works.

Megan Campbell