The Streets @ Carling Academy, Newcastle (10.10.08)

Words: Tommy Jackson

With new album Everything Is Borrowed currently being damned by the faintest of praise, it is no surprise that Mike Skinner feels that he has something to prove right now. Skinner and company hit the stage running tonight, launching into the opening track from that very album, and from then on in, no one was getting away without having a good time.

Once we have the obligatory new single out of the way, it's on with a greatest hits set from The Streets. Don't Mug Yourself is even better live than on record, with Skinner pouring everything into this storming slice of urban unfulfilmemt. Lets Push Things Forward drifts into a cover of The Prodigy classic Out Of Space, getting the crowd bouncing for the first time, and when we move into the heartfelt Never Went To Church there is a definite sense that everyone in the room is as one.

As well as rolling out his own hits, Skinner treats us to one or two covers tonight, including a superbly atmospheric take on Daddy's Gone which could teach Glasvegas a thing or two about working a crowd, and a snippet of Hot Chip's Over And Over which adds a rave tinge to a grime fuelled night.

Mike Skinner may have gone on record as saying that he is "fucking sick of The Streets", but on tonight's showing you would never know it. From start to finish he was nothing but superb. He might be sick, but the fans certainly aren't.