The War On Drugs review: All highs at Ally Pally

Philadelphia's finest rock exports show their quality in the capital
War stories: Adam Granducie and his band light up Ally Pally
Getty Images
Rick Pearson11 December 2017

In an era of instant gratification, the slow-burning pleasures of The War On Drugs provide the perfect antidote.

The Philadelphia band, whose latest album A Deeper Understanding reached number three in the UK charts, specialise in sprawling, widescreen rock that nods to Dylan, Springsteen and Dire Straits.

If their penchant for seven-minute songs makes them a hard sell for the radio, it makes them a thrilling live act. The 10,000-capacity Ally Pally was packed with a crowd with a male/female ratio roughly equivalent to that of an engineering class, all eager to see Adam Granduciel and his hirsute bandmates serve up their long-form pleasures.

Sounding good in this cavernous space is a challenge for the best of bands, but The War On Drugs made it look easy. It helps that their songs are epic both in length and ambition. Pain, with its galloping beats and refrain of “I’m in love; I’m in pain”, echoed Arcade Fire, while Granduciel decorated the majority of the songs with his expansive Mark Knopfler-style guitar solos.

That it never felt self-indulgent speaks volumes about the quality of the songwriting. These are finely crafted numbers, tastefully arranged and precisely performed. An Ocean In Between The Waves was a narrative ballad from the Dylan school of songwriting, Thinking Of A Place a Springsteenian widescreen rocker.

There were no pyrotechnics, no great light show. The War On Drugs don’t need them: they have great songs. Sometimes, that’s all you need.

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