“The world seems to have finally caught up with The Chameleons”, exclaimed the inimitable frontman of The Membranes, John Robb, halfway through his own band’s raucous set. On the evidence of tonight’s show, he’s right.
With tickets selling out in advance, clearly the anticipation levels were high. Opening band Atari Doll delivered a stellar set of female-fronted alt-rock, unphased by the crowd in what can often be a daunting task of opening for two established bands.
The Membranes had accompanied The Chameleons for the whole of this tour and returned to Middlesbrough having last visited in September.
Playing material mostly from their last two LPs, they delivered a cacophonous fusion of space-rock and post-punk, taking the audience on a journey through the cosmos via dedications to Guisborough woods and snow monkeys.
The Membranes carry an otherworldly aura about them, from the mystically clad multi-instrumentalist Amelia to the thousand light-year stare of vocalist and bassist, John Robb, who seemed to spend the entire set in a trance-like state gazing into the depths of the universe.
The intimate setting of a sold-out Westgarth proved to be a perfect match for The Chameleons, with the crowd made up primarily of die-hard fans, creating an almost fraternal vibe between the audience and the band.
Now halfway through the tour, the band performed like a well-oiled machine, playing the entirety of the ‘What Does Anything Mean? Basically’ LP before finishing with tracks from ‘Strange Times’ and ‘Script of the Bridge’.
Throughout the set, they offered a masterclass in virtuosity without ever slipping into pretentiousness, with guitarist Neil Dwerryhouse exuding a laconic sense of cool as his effects-heavy guitar intricately wove around his counterpart Reg Smithie’s solid riff foundations; all the while backed by an airtight rhythm section led by the charismatic vocalist/bassist, Mark Burgess.
They had the audience in the palms of their hands throughout the whole 90-minute performance, ebbing and flowing between intense, angular post-punk to full-on anthemic sing-along choruses, sending palpable waves of euphoria across the crowd as they acted as a more than willing backing choir.
The overriding feeling was that we had all just witnessed a band at the peak of their powers. Indeed, it did feel that the world had finally caught up with The Chameleons.
