“This is the first record we ever made. Still sounds good to me,” smiles bassist Mickey Bradley, deliberately downplaying the song released in 1978 that secured the Undertones’ legacy for almost 50 years and counting. Played hard and unceremoniously tonight, Teenage Kicks still sounds lonely, horny, thrilling: it’s the stuff of raw teen spirit, but has also aged poignantly with the Derry band and their now silver-haired audience, with something moving to say about the weight of nostalgia.
When brothers John and Damian O’Neill’s guitars crash to a halt, many in the crowd are hugging – but the Undertones are already on to the next. This anniversary tour is far from sentimental: ripping through 30 songs in 90 minutes, it’s a breakneck ride through the punk humour, new-wave surrealism and open vulnerability of their first two albums.
