The Divine Comedy – 2 July 2024 (ALMA Festival Barcelona 2024)

To talk about The Divine Comedy is to talk about POP in capital letters, the same kind that Belle and Sebastian, Teenage Fanclub or Spanish band Tachenko defend with their ability to brighten up a shitty day with just a couple of songs. Neil Hannon‘s band also has that incredible duality of being a band that is unknown to the general public, but with the ability to have many songs that are instantly recognisable.

Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy, Alma Festival Barcelona 2024 – Photo by Víctor Ramos Santafé for Indieofilo^©

With a line-up very similar to the one that visited L’Auditori a couple of years ago, the concert started with “Certainty of Chance” and the whole audience sat down religiously, only to start shaking the primal instincts with “Generation Sex“, causing some people to get up from their chairs and go to the back to dance, an action that would end up becoming a continuous trickle with each song that passed. After three back-to-back tracks from Bang Goes The Knighthood (2010), with the sensual ‘At The Indie Disco‘ standing out, the concert kicked off with ‘Bad Ambassador‘ and ‘Mastermind‘ in a half-time set that perhaps brought the party in the Poble Espanyol down a little too much.

Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy, Alma Festival Barcelona 2024 – Photo by Víctor Ramos Santafé for Indieofilo^©

Fortunately, like a bull in a china shop, the songs of the timeless pop gem that is Casanova (1996), and by the hand of “Something for the Weekend” and “Becoming More Like Alfie” the band brought the joy and pop rhythms back into the show, setting the tone for a memorable second half of the concert. “The Frog Princess” and “Your Daddy’s Car” allowed the band to shine, with an accordion a highlight, while the more theatrical Hannon was on display in a heartfelt rendition of ‘A Lady of a Certain Age‘. .

Tosh Flood of The Divine Comedy, Alma Festival Barcelona 2024 – Photo by Víctor Ramos Santafé for Indieofilo^©

In between constant jokes about the weather, chatting to the audience or even playing short intros by David Bowie or U2, the concert entered a final stretch that began intimately with “Songs of Love” and “When the Lights Go Out All Over Europe” and then turned everything upside down with the brilliant “Our Mutual Friend“, where each instrument of the sextet that accompanied the Northern Irishman fit perfectly. With the audience surrendering, the massive karaoke came with the recognisable chorus of ‘National Express‘, but above all with an incredible ‘Tonight We Fly‘, which seemed to be the finishing touch to an incredible pop night..

The Divine Comedy, Alma Festival Barcelona 2024 – Photo by Víctor Ramos Santafé for Indieofilo^©

However, there was still time for two more encores, both of a less intense nature; the song Hannon wrote for the doctors and health workers during the pandemic, “To The Rescue“, and the well-known “Charmed Life“. A recurring fact that has happened to me whenever I have seen The Divine Comedy is that the choice of more relaxed songs to close their show always leaves me with a bittersweet taste in my mouth, because I think that with a small change in the order of the setlist and the possibility of ending with the whole audience dancing, the direct transmission of happiness that a concert of theirs implies is better reflected. However, this personal quibble cannot spoil an excellent concert, full of rhythm and emotion in equal measure, capable of getting the person with the least sense of rhythm in the world dancing and cheering up even the biggest party pooper…