CityLife

The Enemy

The Enemy
Apollo
November 29, 2009

THE Enemy were in no mood for making friends as they ended their UK tour at the Apollo with a snarl and a curled lip.

“If I were you I’d probably just get your coat, cos that was rubbish!” jeered cocky frontman Tom Clarke, following the crowd’s fervent reaction to hit track We Live And Die In These Towns.

But fans have come to expect this kind of cheek from the brash Coventry lad-rock outfit, and lapped up the sass voraciously.

Swaggering onstage with opener Aggro, all arms in the venue were quickly in the air, before the band laid into the stomping Had Enough.

Their style is fairly typical of a group brought up on Britpop, and the upbeat chugs and yelping choruses occasionally dragged.

Boisterous

Slower efforts such as Happy Birthday Jane and Sing When You’re In Love were particularly arduous, and much of the more recent material from Music For The People sounded limp in comparison with the energy of chart topping debut We Live And Die In These Towns.

But their conviction shines through, and when they hit a sweet spot with songs like the boisterous Away From Here and second album standout Be Somebody, they come out on top.

Contradicting the band’s lack of ideas and creativity is an irresistible charm, no better represented when they played This Song.

Its chorus of "this song is about you" hardly strains the synapses, but when they confidently leave the stage with the crowd singing it back to them, until they saunter back on again, they’re doing something right.

To close, Clarke hails Manchester Apollo as “the best live venue in the UK!” before the crowd gleefully catches stagediving bassist Andy Hopkins.

Despite everything, The Enemy seem to have made some more allies after all.

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