Recently made available in an improved stereo version courtesy of Michael J via Graeme(BCB). Very good audience tape....some limited audience chatter.
One door closes and another one opens. The last gig with Spencer, Steve and Ben. I'm not going to discuss the incident which was the centre of the evenings controversy - you can read about that elsewhere. This is a difficult review to write. I know that many fellow fans were distraught when they heard of the break-up and it pains me to recall some of the anger and disbelief that followed.
I'm struck listening to this five months later, and what has happened since, that this is clear evidence of this version of the band in terminal decline. In comparison with the heat death performances in mid to late 2005 this feels a little tired and listless in places - an odd thing to say about a Fall gig - and it upsets me to say it. OK its played very well, and comparisons with the current line-up are unfair, but the central muscular core of the band ,which was so obvious in previous performances of this line-up, is somehow missing.
The clue I think is in Smith's performance, by which I mean he seems distracted and/or slightly bored. The band lacks a spiritual core to drive the material - for example on "What About Us?" the whole thing loses its way about three quarters of the way through and Pritchard resorts to a thrashy sound. Obvious when you know that the singer was persuing a banana throwing attacker into the car-park. There is no one directing the music or its dynamic - it all feels a little one-dimensional. Bereft of ideas? Perhaps. More - lacking leadership - due to the absence of the band's spiritual leader on other matters. Perhaps this shows more than anything else the vital element that Mark brings to a Fall performance?
Having said that "The Boss" starts well, in the spirit of "The Monks" I would say but it then sort of disintegrates into the riff dominated one idea thrash that characterised the latter months of this iteration of the band. "Grass Grow" starts with an apology from Mark - it motors at a fair old speed but it feels a bit "by the numbers".
"Mountain Energei" is dominated by Spencer's drumming which is at a slightly higher tempo than usual - the bass is very low in the mix and the guitar is reduced to a picking until the choruses where it enters in a contradictory fashion in waves of chords. Elena holds the core with some drone notes but the essential funky nature of the song appears to be lost in a four to the floor bass and drum rhythm. In playing terms this is the high point of the evening in sheer bloodymindedness of noise and its good to hear Mr Smith quoting the interest rates at the Halifax Building Society.
"Pacifying Joint" starts well enough - again at a very fast tempo - so much so that Mark is reduced to shouting the lyrics rather than articulating them in his usual inimitable style. Its almost like the band is saying "lets get on - get it over with as soon as possible - and get off".
"Systematic Abuse" appears to have a perfunctory "whup" from Smith at the beginning but it is an instrumental dominated by some nice organic synth textures from Elena.
After that we have just over two minutes of an increasingly brassed off/bemused crowd followed by a short explanation from Elena as to why the band does not want to come back on stage.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
All in all a disappointing end to what was one of the more rivetting and driven versions of The Fall.
Unless you are a completist this is not worth your attention.
(*) Please note additional crowd noise segment added following a lot of hard work from Michael to ensure complete historical accuracy
One door closes and another one opens. The last gig with Spencer, Steve and Ben. I'm not going to discuss the incident which was the centre of the evenings controversy - you can read about that elsewhere. This is a difficult review to write. I know that many fellow fans were distraught when they heard of the break-up and it pains me to recall some of the anger and disbelief that followed.
I'm struck listening to this five months later, and what has happened since, that this is clear evidence of this version of the band in terminal decline. In comparison with the heat death performances in mid to late 2005 this feels a little tired and listless in places - an odd thing to say about a Fall gig - and it upsets me to say it. OK its played very well, and comparisons with the current line-up are unfair, but the central muscular core of the band ,which was so obvious in previous performances of this line-up, is somehow missing.
The clue I think is in Smith's performance, by which I mean he seems distracted and/or slightly bored. The band lacks a spiritual core to drive the material - for example on "What About Us?" the whole thing loses its way about three quarters of the way through and Pritchard resorts to a thrashy sound. Obvious when you know that the singer was persuing a banana throwing attacker into the car-park. There is no one directing the music or its dynamic - it all feels a little one-dimensional. Bereft of ideas? Perhaps. More - lacking leadership - due to the absence of the band's spiritual leader on other matters. Perhaps this shows more than anything else the vital element that Mark brings to a Fall performance?
Having said that "The Boss" starts well, in the spirit of "The Monks" I would say but it then sort of disintegrates into the riff dominated one idea thrash that characterised the latter months of this iteration of the band. "Grass Grow" starts with an apology from Mark - it motors at a fair old speed but it feels a bit "by the numbers".
"Mountain Energei" is dominated by Spencer's drumming which is at a slightly higher tempo than usual - the bass is very low in the mix and the guitar is reduced to a picking until the choruses where it enters in a contradictory fashion in waves of chords. Elena holds the core with some drone notes but the essential funky nature of the song appears to be lost in a four to the floor bass and drum rhythm. In playing terms this is the high point of the evening in sheer bloodymindedness of noise and its good to hear Mr Smith quoting the interest rates at the Halifax Building Society.
"Pacifying Joint" starts well enough - again at a very fast tempo - so much so that Mark is reduced to shouting the lyrics rather than articulating them in his usual inimitable style. Its almost like the band is saying "lets get on - get it over with as soon as possible - and get off".
"Systematic Abuse" appears to have a perfunctory "whup" from Smith at the beginning but it is an instrumental dominated by some nice organic synth textures from Elena.
After that we have just over two minutes of an increasingly brassed off/bemused crowd followed by a short explanation from Elena as to why the band does not want to come back on stage.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
All in all a disappointing end to what was one of the more rivetting and driven versions of The Fall.
Unless you are a completist this is not worth your attention.
(*) Please note additional crowd noise segment added following a lot of hard work from Michael to ensure complete historical accuracy