Alt-pop band Everything Everything performed a career-spanning show full of fan favourites and surrealist singalongs for a sold-out crowd at the Cambridge Junction on April 2. 

Returning to the city more than a decade after their last gig at the same venue, it quickly became clear that the Manchester-four-piece’s popularity hasn’t wavered. In fact, they’re enjoying another mainstream crossover moment right now, with several songs from new album ‘Mountainhead’ - including ‘The End Of The Contender’ and 'Cold Rector' having become popular daytime radio hits…

Following an impressive opening set from Nottingham country-meets-indie four-piece Divorce, the night’s headliners took to the stage at exactly 9pm to a packed room and rapturous applause. Stood tall in front of glitchy sci-fi light stands and a backdrop that transported the audience to the dystopian imagined world of their newest record, they wasted no time in getting on with the show. 

“Nice to see you again,” frontman, vocalist and guitarist Jonathan Higgs said early on, acknowledging the long gap between the band’s last appearance in the city. Otherwise, chat was kept to a minimum, allowing the group time to perform the majority of the new record as well as a scattering of older hits.

Ever since their singular debut album ‘Man Alive’ - which next year turns 15-years-old - Everything Everything have been masters of packaging up anti-consumerism messages into neat alt-pop packages. This was abundantly clear from the amount of surreal singalongs throughout the night.

Higgs’ harmonies remain just as strong - and unreachable by the everyday person - as they always have been, while the effortless talent on display from bassist Jeremy Pritchard, guitarist Alex Robertshaw and drummer Michael Spearman proved the band’s power in a live setting. 

“Thank you Cambridge. How’d you like this new record then?” Higgs asked later on, fully knowing the answer. Danceable bop ‘Enter The Mirror’ was then given a rumbling near-rave mid-section, while 2017-throwback ‘Night of the Long Knives’ erupted with spiralling guitar feedback.

“This one’s from way back!” Higgs teased before the marching-band-style drums of ‘Cough Cough’, which had audience members testing their own vocal ranges. The sonically-heavy ‘Photoshop Handsome’, meanwhile became the first to get people properly jumping, and ‘Distant Past’ resulted in another mass singalong.

Things were brought back up to date during the encore with Radio 1 hit ‘Cold Reactor’, while ‘No Reptiles’, whose surreal lyrics don’t deter it from being a tongue-in-cheek fan favourite, took the show to a decidedly absurd yet euphoric and cathartic close.

By the end of the night it was clear that - as has always been the case - there is no other band quite like Everything Everything. Almost a decade and half into their career, they are, thankfully, still going strong – and for very good reason.