Everything Everything at Somerset House, gig review: frustrating night from indie-pop darlings

The Manchester outfit failed to deliver on the complexity of their recorded work in London

Jonathan Higgs (left) and Jeremy Pritchard from Everything Everything perform at Somerset House’s Summer Series (Roger Goodgroves/ Rex)

“We nearly had to cancel tonight because I've got a terrible…” frontman Jonathan Higgs teases, before the band kick into their 2013 hit “Cough Cough”. And based on tonight’s evidence, they should have done. The sound desk struggles to find the right balance between instruments; the bass guitar is often awkwardly loud and glistening synth parts surge uncomfortably, while Higgs fails to deliver the commanding falsetto he is capable of.

If Higgs is ill, it shows with a lack of stamina, regularly dropping down the octave when he can no longer sustain the high intensity of his vocal delivery and shouting his way through the choruses of “The Wheel (Is Turning Now)” and “Kemosabe”. What’s frustrating is that Everything Everything have written three albums that rank among the best of British-pop records in the last decade, but they fail to produce the promise of their recorded work this evening.

One of their biggest draws has always been Higgs' eclectic lyrics. “It’s alright to feel like a fat child in a pushchair … old enough to fire a gun” in “No Reptiles” is a particular gem, and the question over whether he sings “Who's gonna sit on your fence” or “face” in “Suffragette Suffragette” continues to be debated amongst fans. Both tracks are performed tonight, and considering the tragic shootings in America last week, the former feels particularly poignant, with the crowd singing back the lyric about firearms.

As the sun goes down on Somerset House on the banks of the Thames in London, the band dressed in perfectly-cut black and grey uniforms, it’s tracks from their debut record Man Alive that provide fleeting moments of quality. The whistle riff on “Schoolin’” sounds just as fresh as when it first dropped in 2010, while “Tin (The Manhole)” and “My Kz, Ur Bf” provide reminders of their ability to interweave complex guitar/synth interplay and syncopated rhythms, while Higgs' vocal jumps between a perplexing array of speeds, octaves and raps, which on paper shouldn’t work, but provide them with a distinctive post-Radiohead sound.

Alas, if only Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood had been available to take the headline slot this evening, then Everything Everything could have taken the time to shake off the malaise that seems to engulf this live show. They clearly need a night off, and it shows.