As a disclaimer, I should note that THE FALL is one of my favorite bands. With that said, before this show I’d only seen them play once, and it was at an in-store at Virgin Megastore in Union Square back in 2004 where they played a short set of only six songs. Thus, this was really my first true Fall show. Fortunately, it was a good one.
As some of you may have already heard, the band that started the tour flew back home to the UK after the Phoenix show several weeks ago, leaving mainstay MARK E. SMITH and his keyboardist/wife ELENA POULOU to finish the tour with a band recruited from the likes of DARKER MY LOVE (TIM PRESLEY and ROB BARBATO on guitar and bass) and ON THE HILL (the wonderfully named ORPHEO MCCORD on drums). Thus, I had some apprehension as to whether these newcomers would be able to play the songs well, given that they’d just started several weeks earlier.
I’m happy to report that the constant gigging must have really tightened them up, as they played the songs from last year’s Fall Heads Roll (“Pacifying Joint,” “Assume,” “What About Us”, their cover of THE MOVE’s classic “I Can Hear the Grass Grow” and the 10-minute, bass-driven stomper “Blindness”) and 2004’s The Real New Fall LP (“Theme From Sparta FC” and a streched-out “Mountain Energei”) with a ferocity that the old band frankly lacked.
Perhaps this is because these newcomers were eager to show that they could handle the difficult task, or because their style is slightly different from departing members BEN PRITCHARD, STEVEN TRAFFORD and SPENCER BIRTWISTLE. Whatever the case, I liked the new members and the energy that they brought to the performance.
In addition to the songs from the last two studio albums, a few new ones (tentative titles include “Coming Down,” “Reformation” and “Systematic Abuse”) were played, along with a few oldies (“Wrong Place, Right Time” and their cover of Nuggets staple “Mr. Pharmacist” by THE OTHER HALF).
Along with the band, Smith seemed in excellent form, enthusiastically mumbling and slurring his way through an hour-and-fifteen-minute performance (some of the shows on this tour were only 30 minutes long), seemingly genuinely happy to be there. While he occasionally played around with the knobs on his bandmates’ speakers and amps, it was more of a slight distraction than a nuisance.
Now I can say that I’ve seen a great Fall show, which is good because you never know when you’re gonna get a shambolic mess, like the Phoenix show or the infamous Brownies show in 1998 where they broke up on stage.
Before The Fall went on, there was an extremely annoying opening act, perhaps the worst I’ve ever seen. It felt like an art installation at the Whitney or something, except that you couldn’t go into another room. SAFI SNIPER took video clips of ROBERT PLANT, PRINCE, ELVIS PRESLEY, FREDDIE MERCURY and BARBARA STREISAND, and spliced up their voices to where all you could hear was a shriek. And he did this over and over and over again for 30 minutes that felt like 30 hours, especially considering that it was 12:30 a.m. on a weeknight and everyone was getting antsy for The Fall to come on. While I wasn’t one of the many people who booed or requested that someone smash the projector, I was still annoyed at this guy’s insistence, and yet I admired his resilience in the face of adversity.
Before him, Narnack labelmates VAZ played early ‘90s Amphetamine Reptile-style rock (no surprise, as one of their members used to be in HAMMERHEAD) reminiscent of HELMET with annoying, screaming lead vocals. Although I like this style, they weren’t distinctive enough both musically or vocally to make any sort of impact on me.
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