It had been a long time since we had last visited the Highbury Garage, and on arrival it was apparent that the place had been done up quite a bit since seeing Therion there in 2004. Gone was the oppressive low ceiling, and the place seemed much more spacious and suitable for purpose.
This was a one-off date, with no new album to promote, so even though Automation Baby was two years old at this point they were still referring to it as 'the new album'. They played an awful lot of it too.
The start of the gig was unusual in that the singer and keyboard player appeared in front of the sound desk and performed 'Trust You' in a stripped down version before joining the rest of the band on stage for the rest of the gig. The lighting was a bit sparse and a lot of the time the rest of the band, apart from Mark Hockings were in darkness, but it wasn't the end of the world.
One unfortunate low point was when Mesh invited some talentless female 'singer' onstage to thoroughly butcher 'Who Says', but I suppose we'll have to let it go.
As ever Mesh utilised their screens perfectly and the 1hr 30m main set was brought to a close with a brilliant 'Taken for Granted', finishing with an epic crowd performance of 'I need to start again, take me far away'... which went on and on and on, even after the band left the stage.
Returning for 'Born to Lie' and 'Friends Like These', the night finished triumphantly with the crowd leaving fully satisfied and thoroughly entertained. Also, I found £20 on the floor and Rose got a Mesh shirt for £1! Magic.
