Some nay-sayers would have this down as a bad gig. Nonsense. Its a perfectly fine opening salvo to the Spring Tour for 2008. A very good audience capture by "Otalgia" from the "Consortium" gives a very audible listen.
It opens with the first live outing of "Exploding Chimney" a driven collection of riffs with some tension and release with several different sections to the tune. Mark does not appear on this - iother than in a snippet from Pander, Panda etc - instead a roadie Niki offers some gnomic sound bites about new albums, television and green giving suns. A refreshing new tune with some great interaction....Elena plays some swirly analogue noises over Pete's collection of riffing.
A great noisy version of "My Door" has great sound layers with controlled feedback from Pete, guttural synth sounds from EP and some great angular drumming from Keiron. I am particularly struck by the rhythmic variation here with the band dropping into different patterns to vary the sound.
A muscular rendition of "Pacifying Joint" shows Elena's emerging role as a lead instrument on some of the songs precedes another debut - "Latch Key Kid" which appears to focus on the issues associated with our ASBO ridden land. A basic bluesy riff underpins a laconic observation of the kids who have nothing to do but to "go around and do the town" where "there's nothing much to shout about". A common observation of many of the disaffected youth of today.
Mark counts in "Alton Towers" but continues the chorus of "Latch Key Kid". Its a rumbling beast of a thing with the excellent rhythmic chording of Mr Greenway. The words "Imperial Wax Solvent" appear from the ether as Elena plays portamento swirls of a high pitch together with warbling organic noises. There could be a little more restraint from Keiron on the drums on this but generally its a fantastic rendition of what I believe will become a Fall classic.
Lyncanthropic howling from Mr Spurr introduces a driven pulsing "Wolf Kidul" - there is a lot of shape and dynamic here hidden in a dark relentless repetition. I'm reminded of early 70s hard rock in places. Again another Fall classic is emerging. A triumphant "Fall Sound" is a laminal mass of noise - at this point its fairly clear that Mark has mixed Pete down quite a bit and his expresspive whammy bar fettling appears a little too low in the soundscape for my liking especially when EP is delivering such a basic riff.
A very lengthy "Duped" suffers from Elena being too low in the mix at the start, however matters improve fairly quickly. I have to say this is growing on me. There are some rambly bits in the middle when Mark comes in to do some ranting and the song seems to have an overlong coda. Notwithstanding that a good reading and the lyrics at last coming clear - with reference to a Doctor Richard and the Pyrenees at one point!
This is followed by a similarly lengthy and penetrating "What About Us?" with a great crashing intro from Pete and some consummate live mixing. Mark does a short solo on EPs synth and then sets up a long vibrato siren noise.
"Sparta" suffers from some finger fumbling on the opening riff but is generally very good with Elena taking more of a dominant role with here narration section. An excellent delivery of "Wings" closes the first set of encores. Audience gets the microphone at the end and some wag asks for "Bingo Masters".
An exceptional "Tommy Shooter" starts the second set of encores - I just wish Mark was a little higher in the mix as the word play seems quite magnificent and "Imperial Wax Solvent" gets another mention.
Mark calls for "Blindness" and we get extra percussion from Mr Smith over a stripped down version with some reference to a "man looking for his lyrics". Some trilling and coughing presage tinny skank sounds from Pete as EP and Keiron dominate. The usual synth solo from Mark precedes a lenghty noise fest with lashings of wah wah guitar - intense and immense as usual.
All in all a very good gig indeed.