Live Review: Augustines at Leeds Stylus

Try not to cry, because you’re about to miss possibly the greatest live band of their generation.

We tried to tell you and only now, when it’s too late, do you look up. As confirmed Augustines acolytes we’re scrabbling around desperately looking for someone to blame for this travesty. And we mean anyone.

Tonight isn’t a farewell concert, it’s a travesty. How can a band of this quality not make a living being this good? And yes, they are THAT GOOD. The reverence with which their shows are now treated by those attending is humbling. The emotion here was palpable before they took to the stage, then the lights went down and all bets were off.

Dickens probably said it best when he talked about it being both the best and worst of possible times (pardon the paraphrasing). Augustines live has become, for those who attend, something of a pilgrimage. Filled with expectant energy, passion and desire for a band they believe their own. Unfortunately, maybe they’ve kept them too much to themselves, which makes the reasons for this farewell tour even more difficult to swallow.

“Just know we tried and you’re forgiven”, they sing passionately and truthfully tonight during Book of James. The only problem for those watching is they don’t agree. There’s no forgiveness amongst this audience, for an industry to have pushed a band of this brilliance to their end through some lack of interest is quite simply unforgivable on any level.

Anger about the situation aside, you might be wondering about the show?

Astonishing.

Job done? No way, because now it’s time to really effuse about the absolute beauty and emotion on display here tonight. Augustines have never hidden their emotions, and that’s always been one of the joys of seeing them live. However, tonight this feels more earnest than ever before, it’s writ large from the opening moments, during the powerfully evocative The Avenue, they’re pouring in even more than normal, in fact it’s so far beyond vertical, it’s disorientating.

With each song this feeling is only compounded, probably by the constant and beautifully self-aware and humorous commentary supplied between every song. But there’s more, there always is with Augustines. There’s intimacy, there’s insanity, there’s ridiculousness and there are moments that simply take your breath away.

Billy McCarthy’s voice can at times stop you in your tracks. Live, he sings with a determination; it’s not anger, it’s not sadness, it’s not happiness – but is instead some insane amalgam of them all. You can, within the same moment, feel like screaming, crying, laughing and rejoicing.

Nothing to Lose But Your Head, Philadelphia (City of Brotherly Love), Weary Eyes, Book of James and Chapel Song all stand out, but what stands out more is the relationship the band have with their audience. The crowd play a disproportionate art in every Augustines show, and tonight is no different. From conversation to backing vocals, the band expect, ask for and demand participation. They get it.

It’s a relationship that will be sorely missed as the prospect of no more nights like this begins to sink in. Because, as a two-hour-plus show draws to a close, it still manages to feel like it’s not been long enough.

There’ll never be another Augustines, but in the future there might be more of them to go around, and hopefully this time the industry will be kinder. But for tonight they’re here, heart and soul, and no one could have ever asked more of them. In fact, they always gave so much more than they ever needed to. Maybe that was their downfall – in giving everything to their fans they left nothing for those with no interest.

Or maybe it’s our fault for taking everything they had to offer and holding moments like tonight to our hearts when we should have been shouting about them from the rooftops.

With a crowd begging for more, they were gone.

(Dylan Llewellyn-Nunes)