The The Setlist

— Set I —

Cognitive Dissident
Some Days I Drink My Coffee by the Grave of William Blake
Zen & the Art of Dating
Kissing the Ring of POTUS
Life After Life
I Want to Wake Up With You
Down by the Frozen River
Risin’ Above the Need
Linoleum Smooth to the Stockinged Foot
Where Do We Go When We Die?
I Hope You Remember (The Things I Can’t Forget)
A Rainy Day in May
— Set II —
Infected
Armageddon Days Are Here (Again)
The Sinking Feeling
Heartland
The Whisperers
Love Is Stronger Than Death
August & September
Slow Emotion Replay
This Is the Day
Icing Up
Dogs of Lust
Sweet Bird of Truth
Lonely Planet
— Encore —
Uncertain Smile
GIANT

English rock band The The (led by Matt Johnson) is back on tour in support of Ensoulment, the band’s first studio album in 24 years. The tour stopped by the Palace Theatre, in St Paul, on Saturday night, November 26, 2024.

The band did have success in the UK, and I first discovered them with Infected in 1986, when the record spent 30 weeks on the chart. Being a big The Smiths fan, I was excited to learn that guitarist Johnny Marr became The The’s guitarist from 1988 to 1994.

Johnson explained in an old interview that he was friends with Marr before he joined the Smiths: “Johnny Marr and I have known each other from the Burning Blue Soul days. I used to go up to Manchester, I was out all the time, and I met a lot of people, including Johnny. He then formed The Smiths and used to stay at my bedsit in Highbury when taking their demos around. Then we sort of lost touch. Meanwhile, I was touring Infected in Australia, and I met Billy Bragg who invited me to play at Red Wedge. I enjoyed it, and I thought, ‘Maybe I should start thinking about playing live again…’ And so as I was writing Mind Bomb, I started writing it with the idea of a band. I got Dave Palmer and James Eller, and we’d already started doing the recording before Johnny got involved. We hadn’t seen each other for years, then we bumped into each other at an Iggy Pop gig. He came over to my place in East London, and we ended up sitting up until 6am, by which time it was agreed he was joining the band – coming on tour, everything.”

By the time I was old enough to attend concerts, The The had gone into hiatus… which, to me, I thought they broke up. Imagine my surprised when I found out the band is back and they have a new album Ensoulment… and they’re heading out on tour! What the heck!??

It’s good to have Matt Johnson back. Hearing him talk about the good old days of touring and all the musicians that helped him along the way, this guy has been around.

Of course, with his English accent, it was quite hard to understand the guy. He asked who was from St Paul and who was from Minneapolis at our show. Apparently, based on the feedback, most of the audience was from Minneapolis. Speaking of the audience, they’re all in their 50s or near retirement. Most of them haven’t see the band before, or if they have, it was over 30 years ago. So, speaking for the audience, it was really good to have Matt Johnson and The The back on stage.

For this tour, Matt Johnson assembled a full band, featuring James Eller on bass, DC Collard on keys, Earl Harvin on drums, and Barrie Cadogan on lead guitar. There are no opening bands, just The The playing two sets.

The first set is their Ensoulment album, which came off as a little bluesy and a little country. Set two contains a mixture of “hits” from their various albums, including Dusk and Infected.

Remaining tour dates: