Renegades @ Hoxton Bar and Kitchen

It’s become rather trendy in recent years for bands you already know tour under an alias, only to showcase material that ends up on their album anyway. The reason they do this is simple: if the music’s rubbish, they can ditch it and escape with their name untarnished.

Renegades – or Feeder’s Grant Nicholas and Taka Hirose – don’t follow this formula. We can say this because the tracks on display at this Hoxton show sounded absolutely nothing like the radio-friendly airwave filler exhibited in the latter stages of Feeder’s career; it’s actually strong enough to stand alone in its own right.

This show was a journey back to a path Feeder could have trodden when they were still in their infancy - and it’s one that Grant and Taka are clearly enjoying. The pair seemed reinvigorated, treating a capacity crowd to a strong performance that proved there was always more to a band better known for producing chart bothering ditties like ‘Buck Rogers’.

Dark, grungy undertones are at work on ‘Sentimental’, which evokes memories of early Bush (hey, they were good once!); there are shades of punk-lite on ‘Left Foot Right’; and the rampant march of ‘Renegades’, even in its very name, sounds like it belongs on one of the more recent Green Day albums.

With a rare outing from the Feeder vault for fan favourite, ‘Tangerine’, it’s clear the band has not forgotten what got them to this point. However, when they’re clearly enjoying it this much, it’s doubtful that they’ll go back.


PHOTO CREDIT: RORY CARROLL