Everybody has got one. A favourite band who didn’t get the credit that they deserve, whose genius wasn’t picked up by the masses, who shone so brightly that they burnt up before the world realised how good they were and were seemingly consigned to appear in online articles titles ‘cult acts who deserved to be so much bigger’.
If you’re particularly lucky though there may get a second life. A second chance to prove to everyone that they deserve better. Maybe the reunion will feel inevitable and be rumoured for weeks, possibly months in advance. Or as happened to me, maybe the news will somehow pass you by, until one evening, eighteen years after they split up, you get home late from seeing the Manic Street Preachers and Suede’s co-headlining tour, check Facebook before climbing into bed and stumble on an advert for their upcoming tour.
Maybe your first reaction will be the same as mine was – complete disbelief to the point that the only rational explanation was that another group had by chance taken the same name without realising it had previously been used. But after studying the artwork for clues the style felt familiar enough to start thinking this could be real. A quick google revealing that yes, they were back and live shows were coming. It wouldn’t be safe to wait till the morning, small venues sell out quick, the only option therefore was to scramble downstairs at one o’clock in the morning, still not quite believing this was happening, to get my credit card to make sure I got tickets.
Motorcycle Emptiness and The Wild Ones may have been impeccable as always, but it was the fact that Hope of the States were back that had me grinning from ear to ear as I slipped off to sleep. Eighteen years since they split up seemingly never to return and I was now the excited owner of tickets for what was scheduled to be their first show back.
Five months later and the night finally arrived. A dark, wet, Wednesday in Manchester may not be the natural point in time and space for hope and optimism and the return of a much loved band, but as the Gorilla slowly filled up it felt like there was an unmeasurable sense of expectation in the crowd exceeding the normal levels of pre-gig excitement. Or maybe it was just that with no phone reception or wi-fi in the venue people were forced into old fashioned things like making conversation during the build up.
And then at nine the lights went down and the pre-show projections started up, leading to rapturous applause as the band stepped onto stage for the first time in almost two decades. I’ve no idea what must have been going through the band members’ minds in those first few moments, but it felt like there was a conscious decision to not acknowledge or even look to the audience as they took up position and kicked into instrumental opener The Black Amnesias.
Sticking tightly early in the set to songs from debut album The Lost Riots, asides from a few bursts of unplanned feedback the band showed no signs of rustiness. But it was fourth song George Washington when it felt the band truly hit their stride musically – whilst for many groups with large numbers of performers it often feels like the roles of the individual musicians overlap and support each other, with Hope of the States the feeling was that each of the six members makes an individual contribution to the soaring wall of sound being produced, with each song taking the listener on a wild and unchartered journey.
Early on it wasn’t clear how much the band were enjoying the limelight, almost that they were focussing too hard on making sure they got the performance right with frontman Sam Herlihy declaring early on that being back on stage was a cross between having a nervous breakdown and an orgasm. But halfway through the set, before Black Dollar Bills began its uplift towards its eventual climax, he looked up at the crowd and grinned almost as if to say ‘you know what, I’ve actually missed this’. From that point onward he and the rest of the band seemed to relax and enjoy the experience, with his body language now communicating a man determined to savour having a second chance to live out every aspiring musician’s dream.
In amongst the fan favourites a handful of new songs received their first airings, each capturing the classic Hope of the States post-rock stylings and hopefully indicating that the band’s return is likely to extend to further releases of music. Whilst Ambient Violence and Ghost Story continued second album Left‘s more focused sound, Concerned Relative Blues and its evolving and growing soundscape felt like a long lost cousin of George Washington or Me ves y sufres.
Strangely despite the enormity of the evening, the most memorable moment of the evening came with the group off stage. Having closed the main set with Enemies/Friends the normal pantomime of calling the band back for a planned encore began. But instead of the normal hollering and clapping, the crowd spontaneously joined together in singing back the chorus line of the aforementioned song. How much the band could hear backstage of the audience chanting “Come on people, keep your friends close, your enemies won’t matter in the end” I’ll probably never know, but inside the venue it was one of those spine chilling events that showcased the power of music to bring complete strangers together.
Whilst most bands traditionally hold back their hits for the encore Hope of the States did things differently, instead throwing in a couple of long lost B-sides alongside an album track before closing with Long Waits In A & E, the stunning comeback single (do singles exist anymore?) which clocks in at a mere eleven and a half minutes. And then amongst the feedback they were gone, hopefully with a return scheduled for significantly less than eighteen years.
Writing this the next day, despite being there, there’s still a feeling of disbelief that the reunion has actually happened. Hope of the States didn’t match the sales figures that many of their contemporary early 2000s guitar band achieved, but they were a group that mattered deeply to those who had the fortune to discover them. To see them at all in 2024 feels like a blessing, but to witness the first show back and find the band both happy and still able to pull off an amazing show should give us all hope that sometimes the unexpected can happen and brighten up at least one night of our lives.
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Hope of the States performed:
The Black Amnesias
a crack up at the race riots
66 Sleepers to Summer
George Washington
Nehemiah
Concerned Relative Blues
Me ves y sufres
This Is a Question
Black Dollar Bills
Ambient Violence
The Red the White the Black the Blue
Ghost Story
Sing It Out
Enemies/Friends
***
The Last Picture Show
Industry
Thee Seventies Song
Long Waits In A & E
Alex Reviews Gigs 
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