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As the late evening sun crept through the De La Warr auditorium curtains and Tom Verlaine ambled onstage with his Television band mates, you would have been forgiven for assuming this was a soundcheck.
A relatively low-key crowd and the absence of a light show lent a feeling of intimacy to proceedings – it wasn’t quite watching one of the most influential guitar bands of all time in your living room, but it wasn’t far off.
Verlaine was noticeably static at first but with a few numbers under his belt he loosened up and his vocals began to resemble those familiar to fans of the New York quartet's seminal proto-punk albums Marquee Moon and Adventure.
Fellow guitarist Jimmy Rip, who joined the band in 2007, did an admirable job of staying true to the distinctive Television guitar sound while injecting his own showmanship and energy.
Torn Curtain, Elevation and Venus were note-perfect and well received, while unreleased epic Persia sounded like the post-punk soundtrack to a tragic Middle-Eastern love story.
Perhaps predictably, the evening’s highlight arrived near the end when the sexagenarians unleashed the staccato sprawl of Marquee Moon’s title track, thus proving that such incredible songwriting really has no sell-by-date.
Tom Furnival-Adams
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