Echo & The Bunnymen @ Queens Hall

Age is something that comes to us all – not least Echo & The Bunnymen. Tonight the swaggering hooks and surging ballads remain as timeless as ever but their relevance lies only with a pious and maturing crowd. The stubborn ingenuity of Ian McCulloch has been replaced by the sobriety of middle age – borne out by the insipid inclusion of four uninspiring covers. Yet as the stench of Siberia exits this theatrical arena the dramatics of yesteryear's Bunnymen soberly emerge. The climatic Seven Seas is a magnificent mass of bass that trounces much of today's artistic post-punk posturing, while Nothing Ever Lasts Forever recalls the elegiac poignancy of a band whose comeback provided the aural antidote to Britpop bravado. But as the echoic Killing Moon engulfs the air, McCulloch concisely sums up this lacklustre performance as only he could: "Killing time, unwillingly mine." [Billy Hamilton]