Every couple of years or so, a performance by NYC art-rockers TV on the Radio goes micro-viral again: Wolf Like Me on David Letterman’s chatshow in 2006. It’s one of the pinnacles of late-night TV, with lead singer Tunde Adebimpe, nerdish in glasses and plaid, seemingly in the grip of a werewolf transformation as he sings of the beast with two backs.
The band remain just as singular, energised and lupine as they return for their first gigs since 2018, marking 20 years since their debut album Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes. Original bassist Gerard Smith died in 2011 and guitarist-producer Dave Sitek isn’t part of this return, but a new rhythm section, augmented with a trombonist-keyboardist, are a generous and flexible base for the remaining trio.
The power of TVOTR comes from the way they move between rhythms, a push and pull between destruction and creation. One minute they’ll be powering along on a motorik beat with a fixed gaze, going straight to hell, but then they seem to catch sight of a gathering at the side of the road: songs like Crying and Golden Age have Tony Allen-ish grooves and are euphorically danceable, while Young Liars is a butch yet romantic waltz.
Adebimpe is as magnetic as ever, sculpting the air with gestures as his songs consume him: gyrating like an R&B star under a rain shower, flinging invisible water off his hands. He flounces like Jagger during Happy Idiot, while there’s a touch of Zack de la Rocha to DLZ’s declamations – “Never you mind, death professor!” – but Killer Crane, dedicated to the late poet Nikki Giovanni, is a power ballad full of calm and clarity. Alongside his soul vocals he occasionally complicates brooding songs with an expertly melodic, ironically cheery whistle.
Jaleel Bunton and Kyp Malone’s doubled guitars bring noise and heft, and the latter’s own falsetto howl offsets Adebimpe’s strongly. Malone calls for a free Palestine ahead of singing Crying, including the couplet: “Mary and David smoke dung in the trenches / While Zion’s behaviour never gets mentioned.”
Shapeshifting from biting politics to gentle poetry, from thunderous rock to supple funk via half a dozen versions of a perfect frontman, TV on the Radio are as vital as ever and this is no cynical anniversary cash-in. There’s already a sprinkling of summer festival dates to come; here’s hoping there are plenty more lunar cycles for this band yet.
• TV on the Radio play Islington Assembly Hall, London, 11 and 12 December
