Everything Has Already Happened:Yard Act @ Hammersmith Apollo.

"It's all so pointless. It is and that's beautiful - l find it humbling, sincerely. And when you're gone it brings me peace of mind to know that this will all just carry on with someone else, with something new. No need to be blue. Everything has already happened, time is an illusion" - 100% Endurance, Yard Act

Anyone who made the mistake of writing off Yard Act as one trick ponies will be needing to review  their view of the band. They only formed in 2019, their second album - Where's My Utopia? only came out at the start of this month, and yet they're headlining as august and storied as the Art Deco treasure that is Hammersmith Apollo with the confidence and the adoring crowd of a band that have been around much much longer.

It's one of those gigs where you can see people dancing, punching the air, and singing along to even the deepest cuts everywhere you look. Plastic pint pots fly through the air, a perfectly good anorak is launched towards the stage, and, at one point, a young lady in the crowd flashes her boobs to the band - who don't seem to notice. For a split second, I could have been at Monsters of Rock 1985 (Metallica! Marillion! ZZ Top! Bon Jovi! Tommy Vance DJ set!).

The whole thing was a lot of fun (and I was only on the lemonade). It was a gig I'd not planned to attend. In fact when I woke up yesterday morning it was a gig I didn't even know was on. I got a WhatsApp message from my friend Bee who was, sadly, feeling unwell and unable to go. Rather than wasting the ticket, she gave (gave, not sold) it to me. Stupidly, I nearly said no.

But then I checked myself. I like Yard Act. They're great. Why would I turn down a free ticket to see them? With the late notice I didn't have much time to do my 'homework' and I'm not familiar with much of the new album (one of the few in the crowd NOT singing along for the most part) but once Warmduscher had, er, warmed us up (I enjoyed them far more than when I saw them supporting Parquet Courts at Brixton Academy back in June 2022, they even lived up to - almost - Stu's description of them as "the disco Butthole Surfers") it was time for Yard Act to see if they could deliver the goods. That was never really in doubt. I shook my leg(s) so hard that my step count for the day (which also included walking from home to Victoria station) ended up hitting 29,307.

We Make Hits splits the difference between baggy grooves and post-punk sprechgesang as it manages to tell a story about the music industry which isn't even boring (songs about 'the biz' can be deadly dull, Paint A Vulgar Picture may be The Smiths' worst ever song). Vocalist James Smith (looking a little like Josh Widdicombe) kicks the air, shakes his arse, and waves the mic stand around as bassist Ryan Needham makes shapes and looks like he's on loan from Pulp or, perhaps, The Long Blondes. Drummer Jay Russell pounds away with gusto and guitarist Sam Shipstone shreds while managing to look as if he'd pass the audition as a Bad Seed as surely as he would a Peaky Blinder.

The band have improved by adding a nod towards indie-dance grooves. There's a keyboardist (Christopher Duffin) and two very enthusiastic female backing vocalists (Lauren Fitzpatrick and Daisy Smith) who bring far more than their voices to the party. They dance like nobody's watching, they flank Smith in some of the gig's more theatrical moments, and they bash away at various percussive instruments. Adding to both the gaiety of the gig and the overall sonic effect. Don't just feel the beat of the tambourine, feel the beat of the woodblocks too.

Down By The Stream, a tale of teenage innocence and idiocy, is angular and jaunty, Dream Job has a sweet pop-funk feel even if Smith appears to sing/talk the lyrics through his nose (that's not a criticism, it works very well), Petroleum is slinkier but in a similar vein, When The Laughter Stops reminded me of the debt the band owe to both The Fall and Pulp, and The Overload was nothing short of bionic. Thrashing away and having the time of their lives on stage, the fact that they recently had Shane Embury of Napalm Death on stage for a cover of Motorhead's Ace of Spades now made perfect sense.

Best of all, for me, was 100% Endurance ("Whose sofa was this? Where were my shoes? What did we do last night? I don't remember leaving Nathan's house") with its pensive lyrics about the pointlessness of life, the transience of everything, and how that should be freeing rather than constricting. When Smith delivered the line "no need to be blue", accompanied by an illustrative opening of the palm, a chill went up my back. You expect Yard Act to deliver thrills and spills but a moment of transcendence like that caught me offguard - and very pleasantly so.

There was even a rendition of Happy Birthday for Tarra from support band Gustaf (who we'd missed) and when she was presented with a Colin the Caterpillar cake, Smith had to explain to her that particular British tradition (Gustaf are from Brooklyn). As it was her birthday she got to spin the wheel, game show style, to decide what track from the band's debut EP they'd play.

It fell on Peanuts - a song that demonstrated just how far Yard Act have come and how much they've diversified and expanded their sound. Smith, ever the entertaining frontman, took time out to reflect on supporting Jack White at this venue and appearing here as part of the 2022 Mercury Prize event (when they lost out, reasonably enough, to Little Simz) and, towards the end, dedicated the gig (the last one of the tour) to those suffering in Ukraine, Sudan, and Gaza.

In fact the end of the gig reminded me a bit of the way Super Furry Animals (and their massive tank) used to round off shows. The indie sounds of The Trenchcoat Museum gave way to a funk infused techno workout, the backing singers (and plenty of others) joined in what appeared to be almost a can-can on stage, and a soulful guest vocalist (whose name I can't find) took over the reins as Smith stood by proudly presiding over the gleeful chaos him and his band had conjured up - again! I can see Yard Act tearing up some festival stages this summer.

Thanks to Pam for joining me (well, me joining her really) for this gig and thanks, especially, to Bee for her incredible generosity. Hope you're feeling better soon. I owe you one.