Intros photos on Flickr

After a two-year break following touring their critically middling seventh studio album, 2011’s If Not Now, When?, Los Angeles-based post-grunge rockers Incubus are back with new music in the form of E.P. Trust Fall (Side A), with Side B due out later this year.

Always a band to shift with the times and experiment rather than remain within their comfort zone, Incubus have always been a collective of rock, funk and punk with a DJ element thrown in, making them stand out amongst their peers and likely what has carried them through the high and lows of their 24-year career to date.

Following the release of Trust Fall (Side A) in March 2015, Incubus are back on the live circuit with a single stop at West London’s Hammersmith Apollo venue, following a string of European festival appearances, for “An Evening With Incubus”, their first show in almost three years.

Following a five minute digital countdown clock displayed on the huge screen that provided the stage it’s backdrop, bassist Ben Kenny, drummer José Pasillas, DJ Chris Kilmore and guitarist Mike Einziger strolled onto the stage and took up their positions as the intro to Morning View track Wish You Were Here began to make itself known. Frontman Brandon Boyd then made his entrance to huge cheers from the 5,000-strong sold-out crowd. And by the time the chorus came around, the crowd had been whipped into frenzy. Next track Light Grenades hit Anna Molly was quickly followed by If Not Now, When? single Adolescents, which served to calm down proceedings a little.

Frontman Brandon Boyd owned his audience from the moment he stepped into the bright light setup of the show and exuded all the energy expected from a heavyweight rock show, the obligatory shirt removal coming part way through the set. While rarely addressing the crowd, aside from to say thank you, he bounded about the stage, often crouching down on his monitors or leaping off them.

But it was bassist Ben Kenney who had the crowd chanting out his name early on in the set which led the frontman to take a moment out to acknowledge the audience’s love for his bandmate and bow to him.

New song Absolution Calling from the Trust Fall E.P. had the crowd singing along before moshing at the front took on a new lease of life with S.C.I.E.N.C.E. favourite Vitamin.

A slowed-down, stripped-back first verse of Make Yourself hit Pardon Me had the 39-year-old frontman grinning as the crowd sang back every word and prematurely sang him back the chorus before the band launched into the song proper.

A Crow Left of the Murder song Agoraphobia was introduced by Boyd as a song not played live for a while and led into Trust Fall track Dance Like You’re Dumb, which sounded as though it could easily have come from pre-major label record S.C.I.E.N.C.E.

A Crow Left of the Murder opener Megalomaniac closed the main set, the band segueing into Nirvana’s Come As You Are during a brief interlude.

Probably their biggest commercial hit, Make Yourself song Drive, opened up a three-song encore. It had to be played but was never going to be this band’s set list tent pole. In fact, with such an extensive back catalogue of roof-shattering rock anthems and delicately crafted, honey-slick mellower picks, there was never a dull moment or a single standout peak in the rollercoaster ride, two-hour set.

After a career as extensive as Incubus have had, it’s easy to see how the factory of music-making can get stuck along the way, but tonight has proven that not only has the factory received a well-deserved oil, with Incubus back making standout new music, but that the machine is back at full-throttle with clever and articulate song crafting and instrumentation at the helm.

Incubus’ live show too doesn’t falter in the slightest, seem exhausted or rely on a single standout hit from the past. This writer and photographer certainly left the West London venue of tonight’s performance with very sore through from singing (yelling?) along with pretty much every song from their epic, career-spanning set.

intro flickr by LEVANTINA Encimeras