LIVE: The Wonder Years / Free Throw @ O2 Forum Kentish Town

Delayed mourning hangs in the atmosphere at O2 Forum Kentish Town. The Wonder Years are at the end of their four date run of the UK to celebrate the re-issue of ‘No Closer To Heaven’, and after their spring US tour they’ll be going on an indefinite hiatus. Of course, there’s plenty of bands who’ve re-emerged from a break with a tremendous album and renewed enthusiasm for their sound (here’s lookin’ at you, Brian Fallon), but tonight is it for The Wonder Years in the UK for the foreseeable future. It adds a dash of seriousness to our excitement, a razor sharp focus on enjoying this night to its absolute fullest knowing it’s the last time we’ll be able to scream it all out with Dan ‘Soupy’ Campbell and crew.

Free Throw are determined to our celebratory instincts. ‘The Corner’s Dilemma’ grinds like a skateboard on a rail, Cory Castro ripping his throat raw as we slide into the grainy comfort of ‘Pallet Town’. Lulls make room for claps and air punches, then jolting into a wider scope on ‘My High’. Each song the band chucks our way feels wiser than the one before, and ‘Mike Nolan’s Long Weekend’ grows with a taut, hard-won charm. Their “old one,” ‘Tongue Tied’, tumbles into raw fan connection and a touch of guitar solo silliness, and the way they weave in between roars and tempo shifts makes for an impressive appearance. The rapturous sway to ‘Two Beers In’ cements their status as heirs apparent in this space, and if The Wonder Years are passing their torch to anyone, it has to be to Free Throw. 

Without a fanfare, The Wonder Years make an understated entrance, a soft cheer for each member as they wander silently onstage for the title track of ‘No Closer To Heaven’. Playing an album in full has become such a staple of aging punk bands as to now be a cliche, but that’s not to diminish the joy of hearing your favourite record outside of your headphones in the form that the band always intended. That’s exactly what The Wonder Years deliver, and as Soupy’s vocals blur into ours on ‘Cardinals’, each rough shred landing with a cratering impact, we have to fully appreciate what they accomplished with this glorious album.

We feel closer to the band than ever before, as the frontman shares the story of despair behind ‘A Song For Ernest Hemmingway’ as part of his followup to ‘The Greatest Generation’, we find each hard narrative smacks harder with each applause-soaked micro chapter they play. Vignettes of bass underwrite the unearthed road struggles, the sentiment still fresh on ‘Thanks For the Ride’. ‘Stained Glass Ceilings’ sees swears spat across the room while we pause to contemplate the beauty of the sincere message pouring from every chord as timelines and past and present collide. ‘I Wanted So Badly To Be Brave’ sparks vulnerable orders and evocative fast paced yells as a staked message of hope before ‘You In January’ and its rough and tender acknowledgement that life is complicated. The cycle is completed with ‘Palm Reader’, and we’re left satisfied having enjoyed the entirety of The Wonder Years’ vision.

“As you heard a few moments ago, I am forty goddamn years old,” Soupy exclaims. It’s his birthday today, and he’s blowing out his birthday candles onstage. “We need time to rest, we need time to rest, to stretch this thing out and come back stronger than ever.” Collectively our shoulders unclench with the knowledge that tonight is not a goodbye show, and now the retrospective is over, we’re ready to party. We jump to the unadulterated punk joy of ‘Passing Through A Screen Door’ and holler as ‘Don’t Let Me Cave In’ resonates through the crowd. The photographic memories in ‘Wyatt’s Song (Your Name)’ flit across our vision, joining with ‘New Lows’ to create the background gallery to the record with piercing guitars and thunderous buildups. The absolute pinnacle of the snap on the chorus of ‘GODDAMNITALL’ is perfection before the home run of ‘Came Out Swinging’, a churning party that flings us home with each twang and pebbled beat in an all consuming extended singalong.

So, our nerves were unfounded, and it was only a see you soon show. However, “only” feels diminutive of the raw parade that The Wonder Years put on to showcase ‘No Closer To Heaven’. It’s a deeper spectacle than we expected, and a closer performance from a band will prove they still have a lot to give when they return from hiatus.

KATE ALLVEY