A good audience recording from Hanley/Dynamik. Some useless idle chatter in places but generally very good listening.
Are The Fall morphing into a mutant blues band? Who can tell? There is a definate feel of the Lancashire Hills about this evenings entertainment. Nestling somewhere between Darwin, Diggle, Delph and Dobcross is a the centre of the North Western country and blues world and I wonder some of this is seeping into the bands schema at this time. Certainly the opening "Wolve Kidult" has a good dose of the blues somewhere in it.
Indeed on "Over!Over!" the band has wrestled the tune away from the West Coast psychedelia that had nestled around it into a driving riff focused patently English garage sound. One can sense subtle changes in the bands performances as this line-up gets into its stride. I still feel that Dave Spurr could be further up in the mix - his playing is excellent and it is reduced to a twangy distant thing here.
"Ponto" is a new one - a simple riff structure which interplays with the guitar and keys to create a driving beat interspersed with a slower 5 note riff. Mark quotes words from "Like to Blow" and also mentions James Fennings once more. This has all the hallmarks of a Fall classic in gestation. Elena provides a spoken word part about four minutes and the band provides a sporadic shattered scape before the band kicks into the riff structure again. Excellent stuff.
"My door" has a definate different feel with Pete doing some serious note bending and whammy bar fettling and the band taking it at a slightly faster pace. "Freaks" builds around Pete's riff whilst Mark plays with the words and structures. "Systematic Abuse" has some keyboard abuse from Mark and is noticeably driven with very clear vocals.....where Mark abuses his manager and the crowd about lack of educational attainment. "Duped" seems to be developing from night to night - yet another slight variation this evening. A little lacklustre in parts tonight but promising in all that.
Another immense reading of "Blindness" closes things down pre-encore.....some interest points made by Mark at the beginning about having "business to do" - this is the simple keys/bass opening structure with simple backbeat and occassional guitar from Pete. Whether by design or mistake Mark pre-cogs the word Sanctuary over Calvary in the early section. Spooky - given recent events. Also Mark goes off at a bit of a tangent about the American group and Janet (?) Wise who is "always on the phone" - I think he also makes a point about soundsystems at some point. At around 6 mins the audience also get the microphone which lends itself to some interesting sound bites.
Interesting Casio VL noises introduce an excellent laid back "White Lightning". Another break and the band conclude with a suitably bluesy ramble through the "Strange Town".
An excellent record of a band in transition.
