eager for it? MR: I ' m loathe to play the woe-is-me musician, because that ' s terribly dull. I ' ve been lucky for at least some of my life to earn my living from waggling my fat ass on stage. I love playing live. But it almost gives you the tiniest glimmer, like a peephole in a
door, into what it ' s like to be a despot. Even if it ' s 300 people in Chicago or 5000 people in London, there ' s something deeply unhealthy about having a huge number of people respond to everything you do. It does something to the brain.
IE: Speaking of despots, you ' re coming to North America at a potent time. You ' ll be here in the aftermath of the midterms. Will you avoid or gleefully engage conversations about that? MR: I ' ll gleefully engage with them. I ' ve never been able to keep my mouth shut. We ' re not what you would call a political band. I love Kneecap, but we’ re not that. We’ re not Public Enemy. However, I ' ve never been one to shy away from talking about politics. I don ' t hide that I ' m left wing. I make Bernie Sanders look like Mussolini.
IE: It struck me as everyone at the Roundhouse was singing along to lines like“ the greedy live off you and me” that“ As Good as It Gets” is shockingly of the moment, maybe more than it was in 1999. MR: Quite a few of the songs have been apropos. There ' s a line in“ Mayday,”“ We ' re
guilty as charged, let Mandelson infiltrate.” Lo and behold, 25 years later, [ influential Labour Party figure ] Peter Mandelson ' s in the Epstein files.
IE: Gene eventually overcame critical Smiths comparisons. One connection I felt was fair was addressing heavy topics with humor. I think of“ For the Dead” as a bleak song, but wit’ s involved. MR: It’ s an especially British tradition and part of our way of communicating that we minimize. If something ' s amazing, we say,“ Oh, that ' s not half bad, is it?” Or if something terrible is happening,“ We might have a little problem.” That use of humor to describe the darkest times is really the only way the British have of doing it.
IE: How different is it to sing“ London, Can You Wait” in Chicago than among hometown friends in London itself?
newreleases November 6
Alanis Morissette Good Weather For... Ane Brun I Thought We Were The Same Boys Noize 7LLVSION Bryan Adams How ' s It Goin ' Cult of Luna In The Shadow Of Your Shadow Django Django Doveland James Blunt Airplane Mode Kings of Leon O My Beloved La Roux Old Flames Lorenzo Senni All Ages Naked Raygun Live at Raygun Shygirl Swallow! Skepta The Fork And Knife Steven Wilson Requiem For A Village Sufjan Stevens Worst Christmas Ever! Sylvie New Season TV Priest Cartoons Various Artists Songs Of Neil Young, Vol. 2 & 3
November 13
Land of Talk LASTS Masayoshi Fujita Forest Of Tranquility Randy Travis Same Old Way Royal Blood Dead Company Steven Page Steven ' s Greetings The Body and Cel Genesis Whole Wide World U2 Carnaval de Luz
November 20
Desperate Journalist Gilding The Lily Donato Dozzy Astro
Naked Raygun
Royal Blood
Continued on page 29
10 illinoisentertainer. com november 2026