At this point, Teenage Fanclub must feel pretty comfortable seeming out of place and sounding outside of time, though never out of tune. They’ve been making melodic, harmonic, hook-laden, Beatles-esque pop rock for more than two decades now.
The early show on September 25th at the Royale (the re-branded former Roxy nightclub) wasn’t even at half capacity, but I’m not about to bemoan the fact that a band that has more talent in one of their fingernails gets overlooked in favor of over-hyped flavor-of-the-month bands. This isn’t about the youth of today — fuck ’em. Regardless of the underwhelming crowd, given the median age of the audience, it must have been a tough night to find a babysitter in greater Boston.
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The suds flowed on stage along with the great tunes as Teenage Fanclub’s triumvirate of songwriters — defacto leader Norman Blake, along with cohorts Raymond McGinley and Gerard Love — took turns swapping leads while the other two layered their inimitable harmonies, like sugar atop honey atop maple syrup: sweet and smooth. Classics like “I Need Direction,” “I Don’t Want Control of You,” “Everything Flows,” “It’s all in my Mind,” “The Concept,” “Sparky’s Dream,” “Can’t Feel my Soul,” and “Don’t Look Back” came hot upon each others’ heels, interspersed with cuts from this year’s return to form, Shadows, Teenage Fanclub’s first album since 2005’s Man Made, both of which appeared on venerable indie label Merge Records.
It’s been five years since Teenage Fanclub last toured the States, but this is a band that is known to take sabbaticals — they once took a year off from music to watch Euro football, and frontman Norman Blake has since fled Glasgow to take up residence in rural Ontario. Fortunately for us, Teenage Fanclub haven’t missed a beat. Sure, they’ve added a touch of gray, but the tunes are still as timeless as ever.
Much has been made of the famous Glasgow music scene: Mogwai, Arab Strap, Twilight Sad, Camera Obscura, Sons and Daughters, Franz Ferdinand, Simple Minds, and Belle & Sebastian are just a few Glaswegian exports, but most will point to this band as the heart and soul of Scotch Rock.
Before their three-song encore, Norman Blake apologized for the long layoff, saying, “Sorry it’s been so long, Boston,” but no apologies were necessary. Teenage Fanclub influenced bands that aren’t even around anymore (think: Nirvana — Kurt Cobain was quoted as saying Teenage Fanclub was his “favorite band”), and their music will still be heard years from now, after numerous trends and talentless hacks come and go, because, as evidenced by number of sing-alongs, the strength of their songwriting is second to none.