The Radio Dept. – Scala, London 05/12/10

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Click on any image to enlarge | All photographs by Lucy Bridger

The Radio Dept. have always been just out of reach and out of time. Their music captures fleeting moments with timeless elegance, always able to connect the dots in your life no matter what era you hear it in. Over their 8-year span of albums, the band have moved seamlessly from the langrous, fuzzed-out pop songs of Lesser Matters to the romantic dream pop of Pet Grief, and now, have just delivered the best work of their career in the stately and breathtaking Clinging To A Scheme.

Tonight at the Scala, playing their biggest headline show in the UK, the trio are in fine form: Johan Duncanson’s reverb-drenched vocals shapes the flow of Daniel Tjader’s elastic synths and Martin Larsson’s fluid, melodic guitar work. Tight, measured and highly enjoyable with their delivery while playing a varied set of old and new favourites, they have the audience rapt with attention from the outset. Even though Duncanson is the only one with a microphone, Tjader and Larsson are imposing presences in their own right, and one of the highlights of seeing The Radio Dept. live is this interaction between the members.

Kicking off the set is ‘The New Improved Hypocrisy’, their newest song written for the recent Swedish election. Duncanson’s vocals bury themselves even deeper into the reverb but the melody comes out strong and clear. “We don’t mind democracy, we have our ways around it” as a mission statement more than a lament. The Radio Dept. have always made their politics personal – ‘Freddie And The Trojan Horse’ later in the set attesting to this – a call-to-arms driven by a sense of scheming and intrigue rather than defeatism.

At least half of the set consists of recent songs from Clinging To A Scheme, but it’s an undeniable pleasure to hear familiar gems from Lesser Matters and early EPs like ‘Bus’ and ‘The City Limits’ whilst not forgetting set highlight ‘The Worst Taste In Music’ from Pet Grief. Even though their sound has changed and progressed throughout the years, hearing a full continuity of their spectrum of work from albums and EPs together sounds amazingly fresh and gratifying.

The highlight had to be ‘Heaven’s On Fire’, the lead single from Clinging To A Scheme. As Tjader dropped the bright, blissful opening chords, a shout of joy went up from the crowd, with people in the front dancing along. One of the best songs The Radio Dept. have ever written, it’s impact is instantaneous, and sets the tone for ‘Domestic Scene’, ‘Never Follow Suit’ and ‘This Time Around’, three other choice cuts from the latest record.

Not known for doing encores, the band must have been moved by London’s audience because after it seemed like it was all over and the lights were about to come up, they surprisingly re-emerged to play ’1995′, a cherished favourite from Lesser Matters. It was amazing – after the clean melodies of Clinging To A Scheme, it served as a reminder of where the band’s sound came from with a joyous trip back to the heart of its treasured back catalogue. After that, it was clearly over, much too soon, as the best things always are. But that’s the way it is with The Radio Dept. – you could spend years as a fan never actually believing you’ll see them live, and then suddenly you get a chance, and it’s worth every day of the wait.