Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Therapy at the o2 Academy in Liverpool, March 2018. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

You can over analyse and seek treatment for almost anything, the small ailment through to the overriding sense of disassociation of the age, healing comes with talking and yet there is only one suitable cure for the way the world has turned, and a night of Therapy? is always the best of the Doctor’s orders.

On the road with The Stranglers, on the road to the sound of memory and the healthy future that comes with it, Therapy? have more than proved their endurance, the passion for creating a song that rides in the shadow of angst, torment and punishing lyrics, that sprints in the sunshine and is adept at sneaking unnoticed into the hearts of the listener in the darkness, like a wolf stalking and hunting its prey, Therapy? attack the microphone and the instrument with the same candid ferocity, but one with the smile of sincerity and joy strewn throughout as they play to the audience.

To enjoy Therapy? is a given, an almost impossible task to not take the band and give them room in your collection or in your mind, lyrics that snap at the heels, that guide the impulses and shatter many preconceived ideas about how Rock should be tackled, and yet in amongst the smile, there is the hope of ferocity that is ever present, a turn here, a twist there and all of a sudden the pack descends and it is one of absolute pleasure to witness happen.

Ferocity with a calm face, passion with the grin of Northern Irish humour, Therapy? certainly know how to put on a show, and whether they were spurred on by being in the presence of one of their heroes or by the fact that Liverpool remains a place of memories and good times to the band, it really does not matter; what is important that they stood like giants on the o2 Academy stage and gave a performance that could have lasted the whole night.

With songs such as Die Laughing, Callow, Tides, Teethgrinder, Potato Junkie and Screamager all pounding the walls of the venue with a lyrical sledgehammer and a guitar and drum showing the determination of an asteroid hurtling through the void of space in search of a planet to act as the ultimate firework, Therapy? took the crowd on a trip that was an enjoyable blast and one that you can only hope they would come back to Liverpool and reiterate again.

A wonderful session of musical therapy, a pleasure of receiving the remedy to the winter blues.

Ian D. Hall