Review | Therapy? at The Wedgewood Rooms, Southsea: "As urgent and vital as ever"

While the Northern Irish trio have remained a popular live draw throughout, it’s testament to the quality of the new material and a refusal to go quietly into the night, that they are back in the charts.

And perhaps emboldened by its success, tonight’s setlist leans heavily on the album with nine of its 10 tracks getting played. Album opener They Shoot The Terrible Master also kicks things off here, and it sets their stall out nicely. That distinctive whip-crack drum sound from Neil Cooper with Michael ‘Evil Priest’ McKeegan’s thumping bass provide frontman Andy Cairns the perfect bed for a series of crunching – and spectacularly loud – riffs, delivering his nihilistic lyrics with bug-eyed abandon.

With 14 albums (plus numerous mini-albums and EPs) under their belts, even with a setlist nudging 30 songs, there are still big chunks of their back catalogue that have to be ignored.

But still, what we do get is a fine selection, from their industrial-rock roots through their punkier and alternative-rock leanings. Naturally their commercial peak is well represented with a handful of tracks from their 1994 classic, Troublegum. There are also a couple of old EP tracks from that era which get a welcome dusting down – an intense Totally Random Man and a blink-and-you'll-miss-it charge through Bloody Blue.

There’s dark humour amidst the moral and political decay – witness Poundland of Hope and Glory, while Potato Junkie features a shoutalong chorus about James Joyce defiling Cairns’ sister. And of course there’s their ode to misplaced lust, the mighty punk blast of Screamager which deserves to sit alongside The Undertones’ Teenage Kicks.

The band has always had a winning way with their choice of covers – Joy Division’s Isolation and Husker Du’s murder ballad Diane have long been staples of their sets, and both get an airing tonight.

And here they also drop in Killing Joke’s The Wait and a snippet of Requiem in fitting tribute to that band’s Geordie Walker, who died suddenly earlier this week.

They finish with Troublegum’s Nowhere and effusive thanks to their fans. More than 30 years in Therapy? remain as urgent and vital as ever.