Relatively speaking it’s got
to be up there with the first time Pink Floyd gave the national grid a coronary
with a lights display to rival creation itself. Or the kind of set-up Jean Michelle
Jarre probably has in his front room. Of course not literally, don’t be so bloody
ridiculous. But as Hotel and VV pull silhouettes that could walk away with distinctions
from the Mick Jagger Institute For The Bendy, in front of spiraling, strobing
spotlights that burst defiantly through the darkness, ‘No Wow’ jerks awake like
distorted clockwork grinding away the rust of inactivity and things are instantly
a world away from the sight of two rock ‘n’ roll vagrants wearing last week’s
t-shirts, caught in the lo-watt headlights of their edgy debut performances. They
gyrate. They judder. They twist. As they always did, but now with the air of veterans
of excess. Hotel, in a light brown (nee beige) sweater over black shirt and below
a chisled visage, is the gentleman host with the Tourette shakes who spills the
appetizer down your girlfriend’s cleavage and smiles a little too knowingly. VV,
striking mighty poses in her suit jacket/t-shirt/denim combo, face moulded with
cold desire, is like Kate Moss and Bobby Gillespie in the same skin. They’re the
kind of pair whose electricity, in spite of the inherent styling, makes you feel
like your heart is beating only because of them. They’ve gone from apparent
embryonic scuzz ‘n’ roll accident, all the way to this. An actual performance.
Which might not seem all that far, in fact it might seem like a move in the wrong
direction regardless of how far. But not tonight. The more confident and choreographed
it gets – Hotel barking VV’s lyrics into the middle-distance as he battles a fevered
spirit with his axe, flipping their microphones around to gristle their way through
‘I Hate The Way You Love Pt II’ locked onto each others’ burning gazes, VV vertically
lolling on a flight-case riser, Hotel mimicking a particularly animal advance
with his guitar as trusty phallus – the more they seem like a pair aware of their
limits, and aware that they’re much further than most presume. Relevant
sites:
http://www.deathfromabove1979.com/
James Berry for Crud Magazine 2004©
Janauary - March 2005 - News Archive | |
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