While chatter between songs is littered sparingly throughout the set, there are moments where the band engage with the crowd – not least to voice their bemused disapproval of the acoustics in a stage largely set up to bounce sound back to the band rather than anywhere else in the room. Caws is keen to take this opportunity to praise their sound guy at this point and it’s a fair shout as the sound doesn’t drop below flawless at any point in the set.
With these dates originally set to take place much earlier this year, it has become a lengthy wait for some to see the prime cuts from the band’s latest (ninth!) album ‘Never Not Together’ but there is plenty on offer from the record tonight with ‘Something I Should Do’, which finds itself closing the main set, proving to be the real standout on this showing. And there, perhaps, you have the truth about Nada Surf – a band who will open with a string of retro hits and close with a relatively new offering not necessarily embraced by the old school fanbase who make up most of tonight’s crowd – this is a band who do things entirely on their terms.
By the time they unplug for a stunning rendition of ‘Blizzard of ‘77’, they have provided a guided tour of every corner of their extensive back catalogue and it is testament to the depth of their arsenal that, despite clocking in at 22 tracks, there are still glaring omissions by the time they roll to a close.
With their next album set to push them into double figures, Nada Surf are still showing no signs of slowing down and it looks like they might be gearing up to give another quarter century a shot.