Tuesday 17/10/06 The Rapture @ KOKO, London

 

The question that people want answered is are The Rapture as good as they were three years ago?

 

Whatever current opinion is, the band doesn’t care if it’s not de rigeur any more. They treat the sell-out crowd to a spectacular indie disco. The only simplicity about these New Yoikers is their too tight for a thrift shop attire. Musically, they’re as complex and genre-crossing a band as any out there and fully deserving of the plaudits. Opener ‘Heaven’ doesn’t merely start things, the place instantly erupts. The title track of their first extended player ‘Out Of The Races And Onto The Tracks’ follows and the momentum that favourite creates in anticipation of the definitive post-punk anthem, ‘House of Jealous Lovers’ is absolutely awesome. 2003? So what. The atmosphere here is just blistering it’s a shame they scribbled their signature song so high up the setlist but it’s a fantastic indie moment, after all, this was essentially the single that sold ‘Echoes’ to the mainstream.

 

Current single ‘Get Myself Into It’ gets an early airing too. Its chorus “It’s the chance of a lifetime” is yelled back from each scenster kid and chav raver. And the electro-groove of ‘Sister Saviour’ reminds us how The Rapture made the sax sexy. The new material tonight includes ‘Pieces Of The People We Love’ and the quirkily-titled ‘Whoo! Alright-Yeah… Uh Huh’, the latter being preceded by bassist Mattie Safer’s request of us to “Say ‘whoo! Alright’” And as everyone’s whooing and uh-huhing, the new material’s certainly going down with the kids of 2006.

 

Your answer: The Rapture three years on, good are they? Try vital.