I saw Therapy? about 5 times during the past decade and they always impressed me as one of the most jovial and hardest-working bands in the scene. They've also had their misfortunes throughout the years and some personnel shifts (their current drummer Neil Cooper has been aboard since the end of 2002), but the core of Cairns/McKeegan has always been faithful to the rock 'n' roll spirit of doing a lot of shows and record whenever there's enough quality material (and eight full-lengths and two long EP's in a decade and a half ain't bad). In a way, it's quite surprising that the band's following is still this dedicated and big, because the band rarely returned to the accessibility of 1994's Troublegum again. On the contrary, some of their material (2000's Suicide Pact: You First in particular) is rather difficult and not very welcoming towards curious listeners. Nowadays, the experimentation of the first few years seems to have diminished, but it's as if the presence of Cooper has revitalized a band that learned to make the best of their impressive qualities and to this, the show in Bruges was a great tribute. Cooper kicked off the set with the martial rhythms of the band's first single ("Meat Abstract") and from then onwards, his intense assault wouldn't let up for 80 minutes. The guy is a drum monster, has no problem with shifting from the old material's awkward rhythms to the straightforward bashing on the more recent material, and displays a tightness that's, well, TIGHT. Cairns (singing, yelling, funny looks) and McKeegan (jumping, spitting in all directions) hardly got any time to breathe, but managed to keep up and tore through their rich catalogue with an almost reckless abandon. After Troublegum's "Turn," the band focused on the second half of their career, picking one or two songs from Semi-Detached, Suicide Pact, Shameless, High Anxiety and a handful from 2004's Never Apologize Never Explain. While these songs may lack the easily digestible melodies and punch of the "classic" singles, they make a similar impact on a stage and the crowd yelled along to ragin' interpretations of "This Ship Is Sinking," "Perish the Thought" ("It could be worse, it could be you!"), "Polar Bear" and "Rock You Monkeys," which was dedicated to good old Dubya ("A fully fledged bible black-belt tyrant"). Two thirds into the set, the band decided to dig deeper and delivered a barrage of Therapy?-classics that made a big part of the crowd freak out, as there were dozens of stage divers and slam-dancing kids, while the majority of people sang along to those memorable lines from "Potato Junkie," "Teethgrinder," "Stories," Joy Division's "Isolation" (which transformed into "She's Lost Control" and back) and - to top it off - two of their most beloved songs: "Screamager" and "Die Laughing." The pace of the set was excruciating and perhaps at the cost of subtlety, but this was made up for by the band's energy and sheer joy of being on stage (the looks Cairns and McKeegan gave each other said it all), which had quite an impact on the audience that worshipped the band as if they belonged in the U2-league. After more than an hour of rocking like maniacs, the band returned to do an encore, which caused a second explosion. It actually was pretty weird to hear so many people sing along to "Diane," a song by one of my favorite bands ever, but I've always liked what Therapy? did with the song: keeping the intensity of the song intact, without sacrificing the underlying drama and succumbing to cheap sloganeering. "Nowhere" and "Knives" were also churned out, but by that time, I already knew enough (and so did most of the people there). A dozen years after I saw them on TV the first time, Therapy? are still a bad-ass live act, an example of dedication and no nonsense-attitude. Hats off, I say.