Klaxons | Live Review

Klaxons career may have come to an end, but their dusty compact disks will forever hold a place on the shelves.

I’m hauled onto the stage with little choice, sprawled on top of the amps, keyboardist James Righton offers a hand and I’m lifted up in celebratory fashion. It’s a moment of messery that sums up The Klaxons last ever show on Thekla.

Only a week prior the band announced that this was to be their final tour. The news follows a career that’s hit soaring highs and disheartening lows, although tonight is seen as nothing more than a celebration. Arriving onstage donning Halloween outfits, the four start with ‘New Reality’, though it’s not until ‘Atlantis To Interzone’ that the floor becomes slippery and the crowd tear into each other.

The set very much continues this way, with the new disco influenced numbers giving all the reason to bounce around, they clash dramatically with the gritty baselines from 2006’s ‘Myths Of The Near Future’. Halfway through the show a spontaneous outfit competition takes place as they pluck people from the crowd. Somebody without a costume hops onto the stage - “oh no we’ve got a latecomer, the winner is, normal guy!” It’s all a little trivial no-doubt but Klaxons have never been a band to take things seriously.

After ‘Children Of The Sun’, final track ‘It’s Not Over’ makes for a triumphant finale, we wave goodbye to the sound that inspired a generation to embrace glowsticks and whack on a bit of glitter. Considering Klaxons were once the poster boys of the nu-rave revolution, tonight lacks any real significance. In many ways it’s sad that tracks like ‘Golden Skans’ and ‘Magick’ are relied upon to stoke the action. Their turbulent career may have come to an end, but their dusty compact disks will forever hold a place on the shelves of students.

Get nostalgic with ‘Golden Skans’ right here: