After 2008’s commercial underwhelming Vantage Point, a record they felt was inadequately promoted, dEUS signed to Belgian label Pias and have just released what looks set to be their biggest album in a decade. A number one in Belgium and the Netherlands and a top ten hit in Germany, Keep You Close captures the ragged, post-grunge electricity of their 90s incarnation (the band briefly broke up after The Ideal Crash because of tensions over how long they should spend on the road) whilst advancing their sound so that they do not risk descending into a nostalgia act.
Surprisingly, they omit their biggest hit, 1994’s ‘Suds and Sodas’. Any disappointment on the part of the hardcore audience is concealed however. Instead there are partizan shrieks as the band juxtapose Ideal Crash stand-outs ‘Instant Street’ and ‘Sister Dew’ with rollicking new songs ‘Constant Now’ and ‘Ghost’, Klaas Janzoons’s electric violin a cathartic contrast to Barman’s Tom Waits’ growl. If tonight’s down-scaled show – it moved from the Olympia to the Academy – proves anything it’s that, when you’re packing these sort of killer tunes, location is irrelevant.