The last time I went to see the Divine Comedy play was an open air concert in Greenwich back in 2011. I had a great night that night and would never have thought it would be another 6 years until I saw the Divine Comedy again, but it was.
Although not the first time I've been to a gig at The Palladium, it does seem somewhat a strange venue to go to a gig in with it being best known for its plays. It was all the way back in May last year when I bought tickets, and proved so popular that they added another two dates.
Arriving on stage dressed as Napoleon, one would expect him to open with "Napoleon Complex" the opening track on his latest album. But no, he begins with "Sweden" from the "Fin de siècle" album. He follows it up with the hilarious "How Can You Leave Me On My Own" from his new album and then came "Napoleon Complex". Next up was "Frog Princess" which he dedicated to the people who didn't buy a ticket.
After a few more tunes and a few more jokes, he played "Certainty Of Chance". During the quite lengthy outro, Neil Hannon left the stage. At the end of the song he reappeared dressed as a banker complete with hat and umbrella so naturally the next song was the excellent "The Complete Banker" which he said was still dedicated to the financial services workers. This was followed up by a track he said was what bankers get up to in their spare time, the title track of his last album "Bang Goes the Knighthood".
After this, his guitarist put his guitar down before Neil reminded him they needed to play "Generation Sex" before he was to do that. This was followed by a drinks break on stage which ended with two seats in front of the microphone and two drinks in Neil's hand. Out came Lisa O'Neil who was the support act to duet with new album track "Funny Peculiar".
The rest of the gig was filled with the better known songs, beginning with "Songs Of Love" (the Father Ted theme tune). Just before he played "Something For the Weekend" everybody had been seated up till that point, but the Neil said that if they know how to get up and party in Switzerland then surely we do in London.
There were still a few people sat down during the next few tunes, but once he started playing "National Express" everybody got up. This was the last song before the encore which began with "Assume the Perpendicular" and then "A Drinking Song" for which Neil observed a number of people weren't drinking so told them to hold an imaginary glass. The final song was "Tonight We Fly".
An excellent performance which I enjoyed every moment of. My only complaint was the he didn't play "Come Home Billy Bird" which is probably my favourite song of his, but being on his eleventh album now there is no shortage of good music to fill a gig. Lets hope the next time I see him play is sooner than 6 years away.
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