Live Review: The Smile - Brighton Centre 18/03/2024
Full steam ahead as The Smile tear through audaciously vibrant 90-plus minute set in Brighton on their month-long European tour.
To think that a group that’s only been together for less than four years would have such a lengthy portfolio of some of the most bizarrely serene songwriting of this decade would seem so far-fetched, alas The Smile show no sign of slowing down as they shook the crowd in Brighton Centre into a frenzy.
Composed of highly revered multi-instrumentalists Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and Tom Skinner, the trio have already released two critically acclaimed full-length studio albums in their short time together.
Kicking off with the softly textured acoustic title track of their latest record Wall of Eyes, the crowd seemed instantly mesmerised with the flawless playing from each member.
Be it the gentle layering of Skinner on the drums, the pendulum-like meticulous strumming of Yorke on the acoustic, or the composure of Greenwood hugging his bass guitar before joining in halfway through the piece.
The star-studded group’s introduction to the southern England crowd also included the likes “The Opposite”, a transfixing track drenched in thick coatings of delay, “Speech Bubbles”, with one of the most sparklingly bright guitar arpeggio sequences on the set, and one of the highlights of the night with the mystifying “Colours Fly” which remains unreleased to this day.
The variation between old and new songs in the setlist maintained a fresh feeling of excitement between each track, and the addition of some unreleased material only proved to intensify this same feeling within the crowd.
Some other high points include Greenwood playing his bass with a bow before tearing it into shreds throughout “A Hairdryer”, Yorke’s vocoder induced wildness on “Thin Thing”,and the ruminative soundscapes of “Bending Hectic” which could easily go down as one of the most clear displays of the trio’s superb songwriting, as these dream-like textures break into a distortedly chaotic finale.
It goes without saying, the encore consisted of a pure flawless elation of sound, including the unreleased “Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses”, “Teleharmonic” which was dedicated to Yorke and Greenwood’s longtime agent Charlie Myatt, and ending on “Pana-vision” and “You Know Me” which comprise of some of Yorke’s most hauntingly delightful piano pieces.
The Smile are nearing the end of their March tour, but look ahead to a more lengthy trip around Europe in June before doing the festival rounds in August later this year. A must-see for any who want to witness some of the brightest, most eclectic forces in modern music at the peak of their powers.
Words by Jay Cohen
