Live Review: Feeder / Chilli Jesson – o2 Institute, Birmingham 16.03.24

Feeder are back on the road in the build up to their latest release double album Black/ Red

Arriving at a rainy o2 Institute in Birmingham I was confronted with the longest queue for a gig I’ve seen in a long time, anticipation for this Feeder show was high, a quick sell out show on the tour, the atmosphere was high, and even the rain wasn’t putting off the Feeder fans I chatted too.

Once in the beautiful o2 Institute, the crowds flocked to the merch stands to pick up the latest pieces of tour merch, the new designs are simple but look great – and the retro tee’s are also pretty nice!

After a short time, the support band for the Birmingham show hit the stage, Chilli Jesson.

Fans will recognise Chilli, from his previous band ‘Palma Violets’ who were for me one of the best new bands during the boom of indie music in the UK.

Dressed in leathers and cowboy hats I was eager to see how the band came across live after impressing me online with their songs such as ‘Carolina Reaper’ and latest release ‘Icarus’ they certainly didn’t disappoint!

Ending their set with the most popular ‘Palma Violets’ song – ‘Best of Friends’ left a lot of fans happy and certainly warmed up the crowd well for Feeder.

Go check out Chilli Jesson’s EP – ‘Carolina Reaper’ which came out last year.

After a quick turn around the venue was now full to the brim, all 3 floors of the o2 Institute were packed out, there wasn’t much room to move at all, maybe Feeder need to play the o2 Academy on their next tour!

The stage is lit up in a fitting amount of red lighting, Feeder walk on stage to much applause before going straight into the latest single from Black/ Red – ‘ELF’ This single is classic Feeder, moving lyrics with hard hitting drums and some beautiful guitar work.

The band are in good spirits with Taka bouncing around the stage with his Rebirth Custom Guitars, Tommy never stopping in one spot and jumping off amps, Geoff smashing the drums up like Animal from The Muppets and Grant, decked out in a Black Sabbath t-shirt controlling the ship.

Feeder are masters of giving the crowd what they want and although this tour is to support the latest release, the show wasn’t too heavy on new material, with only 6 songs being played from the new 18 track album which left plenty of room in the set for classics spanning the (nearly) 30 years of Feeder.

Songs from early albums like 1997’s ‘Polythene’ still sound so good live, and they fully deserve their place on the setlist, I don’t think hearing ‘Feeling a Moment’ has ever not given me goosebumps. The way the lively Birmingham crowd sang back every word tonight was just magical, and I had to remember at points I was also supposed to be photographing the band not just singing along!

Hopefully, an Autumn/ Winter tour will follow following the release of Black/ Red it’ll be really good to hear the new tracks being sung back to the band like the classics are.

With a handful of dates left on the tour, if you’ve not got tickets yet to see Feeder, make sure you book up and enjoy a night of live music, maybe even join the mosh pit for ‘Just A Day’

Black/Red is released on the 5th of April 2024. Pre-order here – https://feeder.tmstor.es

Setlist: