IQ
VENUE ISLINGTON ASSEMBLY HALL, LONDON
DATE 07/09/2019
You can tell that tonight is an album launch event. The queue for merchandise stretches to the back of the Assembly Hall’s foyer and spills into the car park. IQ took delivery of their new opus three days ago, and early adopters are lining up to bag the new double album weeks before general release.
The album’s title is emblazoned in triptych on the video screens behind the stage: Resistance. Atmospheric intro music plays and the band begin with the Tool-like Alampandria, which saw its debut at Night Of The Prog in July. It’s a short and sweet appetiser.
Bela Lugosi lights up the screens and leads us into the familiar From the Outside In. What music they make indeed. Peter Nicholls dons a blindfold and Sleepless Incidental from Subterranea makes a welcome return to the setlist, followed by the lengthy church organ-driven Sacred Sound. So far it’s mostly been crowd-pleasing classic IQ: time to premiere some new tracks.
Shallow Bay’s haunting piano-led first half builds, thanks to Paul Cook’s irresistible drumming, to a sumptuous guitar solo from Michael Holmes. This has “instant classic” written all over it. Nicholls introduces Stay Down in a variety of accents, settling on a Ray Winstone “Stay dahn!” It’s another slowburner until the heavy and ecstatic denouement. IQ certainly aren’t mellowing with age – a trait that was obvious from 2009’s metallic Frequency album, represented tonight by the dystopian sci-fi theatre of Ryker Skies.
We return to Resistance with
For Another Lifetime. Keyboardist Neil Durant is helped out by Holmes on synth as they create an unsettling horror soundtrack that could be described as the sound a squeezebox might make being sucked into a black hole. This is all very weird but enjoyable, and soon the track morphs into more traditional territory.
Holmes crosses the stage mid-song and plants his head into Nicholls’ chest, who in turn plants a kiss on him. It’s genuinely touching and also an affirmation that the new material is going down a storm with the albeit partisan crowd. They can grant themselves a brief moment of relief and self-congratulation.
Peter Nicholls’ serial killer monologue The Road Of Bones is as chilling as ever. The gorgeous Until the End is a respite from the intensity, giving Holmes a brief spell on classical guitar. Subterranea and Awake and Nervous are uptempo singalong encores. This is a party of sorts, after all.
Old and new rubbed shoulders tonight, and on the basis of the 40 minutes of fresh material, IQ are only getting better.
A happy audience file out. Prog is home in time to put disc one in the player and relive the night.
“ON THE BASIS OF THE 40 MINUTES OF FRESH MATERIAL, IQ ARE ONLY GETTING BETTER.”