(c) Dr Paul Kinsler. [Acknowledgements & Feedback]
Creatures/ support; Nervosa; Horatii/ Vyvyan/ Waterglass; ChaosEngine; Star-80; Sneaky Bat Machine/ Narcissus Pool; Horatii/ Sneaky Bat Machine/ Star-80; Inkubus Sukkubus/ The Screaming Dead/ Decendants of Cain; C-Tec/ Covenant/ Inertia/ Chaos Engine/ Leechwoman/ The Borg/ Man(i)kin/ K-Nitrate Mesh/ Manuscript/ Chaos Engine DreamDisciples/ Nervosa/ ArkhamAsylum
Index; Last year: 1998; Next year: 2000
My mate Dave said "meet me in the pub opposite Dino's, at 7:30" -- so the pub was shut, and just to make it perfect, there was gusty winds, sleet, and no Dave. I wander down to the Cockpit to see when doors will open. A bouncer helpfully says something to the effect of "delayed soundcheck, doors will be at 8:30". I wait around for a bit. Dave arrives, and we dive into the Rocket for a drink. Dave says "what's this I hear?" and nearby bloke says it's Curve. Dave resolves to seek out said track. Dave again says "what's this I hear?" and I give my traditional "dunno" response. Dave seeks out DJ, who says it's by something called "Rod Zombie". Dave resolves to seek out said track.
I know what the next track is, but so does Dave. Curses, there goes my chance to show off my musical knowledge. Being ticketless, we wander off to queue in the wind and snow just before 8:30. Waiting. More snow. Queue lengthens, while getting increasingly damp and cold. After about 45 minutes of saying that if only we'd bought tickets, we wouldn't have to queue, the doors finally open. I queue at the bar, and watch some woman with red hair risk drinking the cheap vodka. I'm not sure that mixing it with the coke made it safer or not. But it's tequila for me, coz they have Jose Cuervo!
So after a while the first band is on. I have no idea what they're called. The singer can dance, and the band can play, but there's something a bit off about them I cant put my finger on. They seem well trained though. I get the (admittedly baseless) impression that they got the support slot because they're somebody relatives. "Bollocks", I eventually decide, and retire to the bar. Dave looks at his watch, worried about the lack of late running public transport, and the quantity of frozen water likely to be descending from the heavens. Me, I enjoy sprinting home through the sleet.
Eventually the usual "the headline band is about to be onstage" droning manages to cliche itself above the background noise. Hurrah!
I'm not claiming any great familiarity with any of their pre-Creatures music; I'd heard some of the S&tB hits, quite liked them, but without paying too much attention. Well, I was in New Zealand at the time after all. But here they are now onstage -- playing a sort of sinous goth-funk chained to an iron rhythm. Hey, I can do silly musical descriptions. Do I get a job at NME now? I can now see the connection in style to the support band, for all their faults. The Creatures played their new single, which I liked, although it had kind of a funny ending; and one or two other of their tracks I though were really excellent, although I haven't the faintest idea of what they might have been called. Dave decided to listen to one rather than go catch his train, so that's a compliment.
End of set, some shouting, and then a two-song encore. There was easily enough energy left in the crowd for a second encore, but up come the lights, dazzling the dark-loving crown into submission. No doubt the Creatures wanted go to bed, as it was getting late on a Sunday evening (where's me cocoa?); but some of us had been queuing in the snow while they shouted "one-two, one-two, testing" into their microphones, _and_ had then missed the last bus. So I thought they could've played on longer. Good gig, though.
Before it was sleet, this time a ten minute sprint to the train station to not miss my train. A funny sort of venue in a way, lots of exposed pipes, ventilation thingys, etc -- very cyber -- but the walls were inexplicably light grey. Or was it lilac ;-). Still, more light to read the newspaper by. Had to help the barperson to get a glass stuck on the top of the tequila bottle off -- but it was a damn near thing. The band were quite good, I suppose, although the singing sounded a bit dodgy to me -- but apparently there were sound problems. Not a great variety of song types though, or so I recall, but to be honest I cant quite remember. I spent about ten times as much on travel and alcohol than I did to get in, which might mean something. Probably that it's good value for money.
Despite not being all that far back in the queue, I still didn't get in the Underworld until after about halfway through Waterglass's set. I liked them, they had a reasonable amount of stage presence, but perhaps a bit more spooky hand waving or something? I was a bit surprised when I started guessing the next bit of lyric rather accurately, although I suppose given that I didn't catch that much, I may have been imagining it. Although I'd never heard any of their stuff before, and dont usually have such a good sucess rate as a psychic. Predictable lyric syndrome? Is this a bad thing? Probably not in moderation, and from my perspective it made them easier to appreciate, with much less of the "what is this song about" wondering that I get with unfamiliar bands at gigs.
The bar at the Underworld is designed for short people, as some of them seemed to get served a bit faster, and perhaps because I seemed to have to lean forward at a 45 degree angle to attract the attention of the bar staff. And no, 45 degrees isn't my usual inclination, even if the previous Sunday it did sometimes seem like a good idea. The urinals were the opposite of the bar, you had to lean backwards at an angle to avoid a face full of tiling[1].
Vyvyan. Er. What were they doing on this bill? Sort of a shouty schoolgirl Transvision Vamp cover band at at triple speed. They seemed to have some crowd support, but although if I'd gone out to see this kind of thing I might of quite liked them, after about three songs I decided to regain some goth atmoshere and practised my casual 45 degree hunchback posture at the bar, mainly in order to get the full benefit of London prices.
Fortunately after this, the DJ played some good stuff, and my mood returned to it's pre-Vyvyan settings. A pig gets taped to a mike stand/ Is this for a demo of the kinky sex I hear so much about? [2] So, the Horatii take the stage. A good mix of new and old stuff, all excellent; with Body of the Fish at about number three in the set -- a good move, as the crowd really took off from there on -- well at least at the front it did 8-). Much leaping about. Random bloke makes positive comment about the gig and wonders if he'd seen me before, at the Borderline last year maybe? Yes, very probably I say. Or words to similar effect. New Horatii stuff all well received, with lyrics that seemed less guessable. So much for my psychic powers. One encore, good; two encores? two? Pretty please, oh well, no luck there, although I though the crowd might have appreciated it, and it was hardly all that late in the evening. Still from other comments I can put the blame on Vyvyan being too quick, so all's well and good there. :-)
A ConcreteBlonde track starts playing, a fave band of mine from a few years back when I was in Australia. It's only 10:30 or so, so I hang about a bit to soak up the ambience. Random bloke passes by again, with handshake. Now, if only I'd been facing the other way, I could have found out whether he was the phantom bottom pincher from the SunshineBlind gig at the Borderline -- well, except for the fact I'd have been looking the wrong way. Perhaps I should employ a spotter. Music stops. Oh well, back to the Tube in post-gig high spirits[3], forgetting to buy new Horatii album on the way out. Curses.
"You're home early dear", sez the wife, "Did you have a nice time?" F***'n A I did.
[1] Unless, I suppose, you went into the Ladies instead.
[2] No, as it turned out. Probably safer that way.
[3] Mostly Horatii induced, with a leavening of vodka.
So as opposed to last time, I even managed to catch an earlier train and so was the first punter through the doors. And was thus priveliged to hear a long and apparently problematic sound check. I got to thinking that I if I was better at mental jigsaws, I could have gone home early and reconstructed a gig from the soundcheck. But these things happen, and I'm not complaining that they were trying to get the sound right -- and it seemed to be pretty good by the time they finished. Which is why I was a bit surprised when during the actual set the vocals sounded a bit muddy.
Chaos Engine: an impeturbable guitar[1] bloke with a hooded top and a toothbrush of hair. A bass player, sort of a surly looking female Brian Molko. I dont think she was actually surly, but just looked it. And a mad shouty singer-bloke, with a prediliction for mini-loudhailers. They put a lot off effort into the performance, but unfortunately the audience was either a bit thin on the ground or too embarrassed to form a single-digit moshpit up the front; so the set was well recieved by polite clapping between songs. Anyone would think Chaos Engine were a string quartet, not an industral band. I must go and see them sometime with a more frenzied audience. Hardware seems like a good value night -- why dont more people turn up?
[1] Hopefully I've got the guitarist and bassist the right way around.
I forget the gig until 6pm -- prompting a mad rush home to change etc and catch a train, which proceeds to take the scenic route via Barnsley. So I arrive later than previous times. As usual it's not so clear exactly which bloke is the one to sting you for two quid. Anyway, off to the bar two the sound of a pretty damn good dj set by Ian.C. Buy some crappy vodka, which is at least only a pound a shot, and find a sofa to finish reading my newspaper, with goths being labelled as a homocidal satanic cult and everything. If only I'd known. Later on the bar runs out of vodka[1], alomost driving me to become a member of a sata... ok, making me mildly irritated, so I switch to JD.
So who are Star-80? I have to say I quite liked 'em, even if they sounded a bit like they should be called Star-70s. Singer-guitarist, bass player, drummer, keyboards. The bass player seemed very shy, never once facing the audience. And I liked the idea of replacing the backing singers and/or dancing girls with a photographer, very post-ironic. Or something. In fact, for a while, the photographer was the most visually interesting thing on the stage, at least until the singer-bloke got into stride a bit more, started on the hand movements, and settled properly into character. They could go far, perhaps, but I reckon they need a more distinctive image to make up for a not particularly distinctive sound; and the singer needs to watch out when the songs demand a wider vocal range than he (seemed to be) capable of. Finished on a dodgy cover, so no bonus points -- you want us to go off with a Duran-Duran tune in our heads, or one of yours? [2]. But as I said, I quite liked 'em.
[1] Eh? A bar run out of vodka? Ridiculous!
[2] OK, so this is a pet peeve of mine.
Due to the massive advance publicity (har har), I wonder if this gig is on or not, so I phone the venue. The bloke there didn't seem to know much, but was of the opinion that there were some goth-type bands playing that evening, so I assumed it was on; and wandered down about 8:45. This was half-time in the Austria-Scotland game on TV.
Anyway, on to the bands. One of the bands, who after a song or two announce themselves as Narcissus Pool start up. A singer who likes to run his fingers though his long hair. A guitar-bloke who is just sort of there. A keyboardis with silly eyebrows [more of which below]. While I found them alright, I really cant think of much to say about them. Then, about halfway through their set they played a song "Drama Queen", and from then on I didn't think they were much cop at all. Was it me or them? Who knows.
Sneaky Bat Machine consist of a mad staring keyboardist, a singer with wierd ultra-well-trained eyebrows, and a less crazed keyboardist. First song was "Halloween something", to which my initial response was something like: "hmm, a bit dull, and christ those lyrics are repetitive". Later on it got better though, the repetition started to have the desired effect and the song turned out quite good. Perhaps not one to start a set on though? I thought the mad staring keyboard-bloke at times rather overshadowed the not quite as confident seeming as you might hope eyebrow-singer, but in general they seemed to have a good stage presence. SBM are not your most serious of bands, so it was fun. Probably could have been a lot of fun.
Best part of the evening? A tie between double vodka's for 1.50 and SBM. Well, to tell the truth Spankee Bott Machine probably shaded it :-)
"Oh no, I'll miss the 8pm coach to Sheffield" I thought as I waited and waited for the number 42. But in the end I did make it, just to find out the 8pm coach to Sheffield was a delusion with no basis in fact. Frankly, if I'm going to have delusions I could do with better ones. So off I head to the train station, to catch a nice s-l-o-w--t-r-a-i-n getting me to Sheffield at about 10pm. Why is the Leeds-Shef rail service so lousy? Beered up footy fans provide some in-journey wildlife entertainment. Now some people complain that it's hard to find the NMB, which is near the Sheffield rail station. Well, arriving by rail solves this problem rather neatly.
I arrive, having spent a pointlessly long time in transit from home, just as Star-80 start their set. I go to check my bag in at the cloakroom -- this contains vitally important stuff such as something to read while waiting to get a coach home in the early hours. But the cloakroom is shut -- so I have to keep an eye on the damn thing through the evening *seethe*. Anyway, back to Star-80. Probably there's nothing new to say about them that I didn't say in my previous review of them -- except I now have no idea what prompted my "Star-70s" comment, and the singing was spot on.
Sneaky Bat Machine. Better than last time I saw them, and the singer had his act together a bit more -- no more being overshadowed by a crazed keyboardist. No change in the eyebrow count, so in all a most amusing set, sort of a bleepy techno brand of camp goth silliness. Mostly a bit too fast to dance to for my tastes, but their last song was pretty damn good, but I dont recall the name -- if indeed, eyebrows told us what it was.
Insert some positive comments about the Horatii here. Like, ooh, great songs, great stage presence with Roo being generally energetic and all that kind of thing. The crowd seemed to like it, but struggled to raise the enthusiasm to demand an encore. Fortunately it doesn't take much to get one these days, so out they came for a bit more Horatiing.
The night was still young, and anyway the next coach back to Leeds was not until 0215 so I cycled though some dancing, some drinking, some just standing about watching the goths go by, liberally interspersed with keeping an eye on where I'd left my bag. Generally had a good time, and as 0215 approached the music seemed to go a bit excessively techno -- so twas off to the bus station for me. For various reasons I was feeling a bit knackered anyway, so I needed the early night. A damn fine evening though.
The Decendants of Cain must be a newish sort of band, or one with new members, going by the general air of shyness. A tortured leather-clan growler; a waiting at a bus-stop zen-guitarist[1]; a nervous "i'm a statue" keyboardist. I had this terrible sense of a mass of descending stereotypes as the growler started up, but this was (happily) dispelled a few moments later. Not a perky band, but, well, I did describe the vocalist to you. If their stage presences sorts itself out they'll be damn good -- perhaps feed the zen-guitarist up with illegal stimulants to make him deranged and jumpy[2], and something relaxing for the keyboard sheila. Or similar. Anyway, a few more gigs and they should sort themselves out without any need for my crap advice.
[1] And probably dying for a slash, to boot.
[2] Or maybe too many cheap jelly beans -- those food colours can be
wicked! ;-)
The Screaming Dead: I thought they were bad when I saw them two years ago, and they have learnt nothing since: they are still bad. OK, they have good stage energy. Someone once said that he thought they were hilarious -- I nearly fell for this line when they came on stage, but then they started to "play". Well, they _can_ play their instruments, but everything else, like the music, has gone wrong. All their "classics" were there: "I'm a 20C vampire", "The Damp Generation" -- and a new one "Western Front". Western Front? People died for this? Bring back the death squads and line these tossers up.
Inkubus Sukkubus: I might be going off Inkubus Sukkubus; or maybe it was the malign influence of the preceeding shite support band; or the guy with the elbows, who seemed happy enough to bounce occaisionally of others, but was less happy if you even looked like you might bounce off him. Did his t-shirt say "be elbowed" on the back or was that my imagination? Well, anyway, it was paganity galore there on stage, muscally tight and professional, but still with some raw spark. I avoided elbow-man, bounced about to the last few songs and went home a slightly happier man. At least the public transport was relatively kind. And they dont charge for tap water behind the bar at the Underworld.
So off I went to Black Celebration at LA2. Three o'clock on a Sunday afternoon seems like a funny time to go gigging, but I suppose the excuse was that it was Halloween. While I cant say that I was blown away by any of the bands, and some of my comments below might seem a bit negative, I did enjoy the atmoshpere and experience. I'm not entirely sure my wallet did though -- extra hours in the venue means extra drinks... hic! stagger.
K-Nitrate: I just caught the last half of the last song, with something in the two-line lyric about America. Seemed repetitive, but then the end bit of songs often are. What are these guys like? Basically, I dunno. Man(i)kin: For a band with two drummers, these guys seemed awfully static on stage. Not bad, but not amazing, I got left with the feeling that somehow I expected more percussion given the extra percussionists. The Borg: Frontman in sunglasses and overcoat plus other bloke who was guitarist, or perhaps keyboards, I dont remember. Some mysterious technical problems were apologised for, but I have to say I couldn't work out what had actually gone wrong. Good old goth-rock, really -- a bit like seeing ALF. Leechwoman: Death Metal vocals and three bare torsos, only two of which were up to the exposure. A Drummer using several gas cylinders and a rubbish bin. Not my cup of tea at all, and a quick exit to the bar ensues.
Chaos Engine: The same lineup as when I saw them in Sheffield; but a few more people in the audience. An excellent set, with even some variety -- something sadly missing from most everybody else I saw here. Is it so hard to change pace occaisionally? Didn't quite take off for me though, as they seemed to lack continuity between their songs, and there was some guy nearby with distractingly eyeball-seeking flying dreadlocks. Just about got really into it and they were into their last song. Foiled Again!
Inertia: Bounced on stage like they were old friends, as indeed they might be to many people. Not of mine though, I guess I've spent too much time in the barren North. Lots of bleeping. And more bleeping. Too much of a bleeping good thing in fact, and the lack of bleeping range wore me down after a while, despite their bleeping excellent energy, stage presence and songs.
Covenant: Imagine three highly professional, career New Romantics going to Ibiza. Let's wear suits and ties. Let's punch the air, guys! One Boy! One Girl! One... oh, who cares. Tight, professional, and fun ... but very, very, very shallow: There's nobody here but us haircuts. The audience seemed to like them, but probably they'd mistaken this for a rave. If that's what I went to gigs for I'd have been having an exceptionally fabulous time instead of a good one. I quite quite liked Covenant, but all this bleeping was getting a little tiresome.
Hang on, isn't someone missing? A band with a habit of not turning up for their gigs? Again we have to [terrible pun warning], scratch "Das Itch" from the lineup! I might've gone to buy one of their albums, but I got a "better offer" at the last minute, so didn't. This will probably happen a lot -- although I'm sure they'll understand.
C-Tec: Errr..... OK, so made up of members of Front 242, Cubanate, and NitzerEbb, says the flyer, but I admit to being unable to recall what these bands actually sound like. C-Tec come on stage and mean business without resorting to suits and ties. They know what they're doing. They make loud industrial noises. They make loud sonorous noise. They are becoming like Gods! During one song they seem to sound like an industrialised version of the Young Gods sampled-guitar surfing. Some guy points at the audience and shouts a lot, but it's not the guy doing a lead singer impersonation -- he's busy being distracted by a member of the audience. I'm impressed. I'd have been more impressed if I was familiar with their material, as most of the songs failed to communicate much but their (admittedly impressive) noise and impact: but I dont know the lyrics, and I've never heard them before. So, guys, are you Gods yet? Let us know how you get on.
ChaosEngine: Nothing to say here I haven't said before: great band, great set. A cover of "Kids in America", which worked reasonably well. The bar staff seemed particularly slow, and I didn't manage to get a drink before the next band, despite spending most of the time queuing.
Manuscript: There seemed to be a lot of them on stage, singer, keyboards, two guitars, a bass (or two basses and a guitar? I forget) and even a drummer. Quite good, I think, they went down well, but their music isn't for me -- I dont know why though, I wasn't horrified by the presence of a drummer or anything. Sounded rather familiar, even though I've never seen them before. The cover of the Britney Spears song was, er, interesting. Half the lyrics translate OK into Manuscript style, half don't. Worth a crack, I suppose. "Hit me baby one more time"? I'd like to, only my aim isn't what it used to be ;-).
Mesh: OK -- a singer with wooly hat, necklace, baggy t-shirt or similar. A keyboard player with oasis hat, dodgy shades and a cod-70's t-shirt. Another keyboard player with no particular features. So they start. They seem to have lyrics with a good hook to them, going by the response. The crowd goes wild. But I keep getting 80's flashbacks, and I cant work out why. Hmm. New Romantics of some kind? Then it hits me. These people are not being true to their musical identity. They might not look it, but Mesh sound like ... a Depeche Mode covers band[1]. Now I dont mind a bit of Depeche Mode-esque stuff, but not right at this juncture, and not by a band who aren't actually Depeche Mode. And now I cant get the bloody similarity out of my head. Aargh! I cant even convince myself: "Cool, A Depeche Mode Covers Band!". Did they finish on a cover (not that they needed to)? Who knows. I took the opportunity to nip off early, buying a Chaos Engine CD on the way out.
[1] Note I said sound like. The first time I hear a band I always find it hard to pick up any more than small fragments of the lyrics, especially when they're live. Unless the band is kind enough to tell me a song title, or say "This is a song about my ex-wife" or some such thing, I often have little idea what they're singing about. Consequently, what they sound like is the thing that makes the big impression.
But never fear, Mesh fans who I've just offended deeply. The Gods of London Transport cursed me and the Number 1 bus I tried to finish getting home on, and I got home late. Actually the 1 is always well off timetable, and the turkeys who run it should be forced to listen to a 15 hour set from the Screaming Dead. Not that this is any consolation. Next time, it's the Jubilee line extension for me. Signalling problems and points failures, anyone?
Arhkam Asylum -- a band I'd heard wildly differing opinions of, but none with any detail. They are somewhat spookykid looking. They look as if they turned up to play. They say who they are. They tell us song titles. That's four out of four so far... but what do they sound like? Well, pretty good actually, in a variable sort of way. Not variable as in good/bad, but variable as in sudden changes of tack in mid song, between songs, and so on. A little disconcerting, but interesting, and after a while the weaving about seemed to make more sense. Their version of "You spin me round" gets my award for best cover of the night. Is their music a new mixture and synthesis of styles -- or is it just a dodgy pastiche? Damned if I know, but I liked them, on the whole. I'd go see them again.
Nervosa -- compared to Arhkam Asylum, Nervosa, while more professional-looking on stage, were just painting by numbers. Moderately entertaining, good to dance to, but nothing unexpected. Their now compulsory cover version was, er, some Abba or disco thing, I think. Spare me.
Dream Disciples: there must have been a longer gap between sets this time, so I'd got in two vodkas before DD hit the stage. So what with ArhkamAsylum being unexpected, and Nervosa being moderately danceable I was in the right frame of mind. Apparently DD have a new bass-god in the line up, as some bloke in the crowd told us, reminded us, and reminded us again. And again. And ... OK, OK, I got the bleedin' message. Nothing remarkable here either, but who cares because after a song or two I was losing touch with reality in the best possible (non drug induced) way and generally had a brilliant time. I'm alive!
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Date=0818 0611 0423 30 19990319 19990302 Author=P.Kinsler Created=19990302
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