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Two static white lights shine eloquently across the
Forum’s theatrical cavern, catching a glitter-ball,
crossing, throwing a soft protective sheath across the
stage and casting tiny glowing sprites across the vast
ceiling. Behind the luminous curtain, in the relative
darkness, just out of reach but leading the swelling
feeling of just-being-there like it is their calling,
BRMC are languidly unfurling the final enigmatic ace
in tonight’s pack. As the deep rumbling beats build
like mist behind the lifting gospel inertia of ‘Salvation’,
churning bass creeping through the gaps, slight jangling
guitar adding the celebration, the lights gradually
raise behind the three uniformly romantic figures on
stage – awkward hair, awkward gait, clothed head to
toe in black, Peter Hayes’ lit cigarette still smoking
on his keyboard. Nobody (that’s NOONE) works silhouette
like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.
This is the key to it all. We probably wouldn’t be here
if they were clad in big shorts and chains, lit by lasers
and pyrotechnics. We wouldn’t be here if they had a
sponsorship deal with Kappa or even if they looked like
they’d spent the last 2 years plundering New York’s
thrift stores’ hip-retro bargain-bins. Aside from the
fact that that wouldn’t lend them to the shadows so
well, over and above all else we are here to see them.
We are here to strive for the fragments of their shattered
emotions as they flake off, to bask in the glorious
incommunicable fug that surrounds then, to hear what
THEY are saying to US. We’ve never experienced anyone
like them before and thus the fact that the songs have
a loose JAMC foundation beneath them is neither here
nor there. We are here to see them.
This is none more stressed though than with the addition
of their British drummer, Nick Jago. If you’re looking
for the heightened, wax-styled, gang mentality that
their name hints at – you certainly got it. If you’re
looking for something that was absolutely meant to be
– you got it. Playing his first set of UK shows since
US immigration obviously gave into his ‘it’s not where
you are, it’s who you are, man’ approach to illegal
alien status stateside, the reception to his intro by
Peter Hayes halfway through is nothing short of rapturous.
And it’s only now we realise what was missing (more
than missing in retrospect – hanging loose, gaping,
flapping in the wind) when ex-Verve sticksbloke Pete
Salisbury filled in first time round. And the impression
that was imprinted onto us even then. Not doubting his
past or ability, but Pete Salisbury has just been put
to shame by a kid with a spaced baby-faced pout and
better hair. The rapture isn’t just for who he is, but
for what he is and what he isn’t.
And he brings the songs alive like you wouldn’t believe.
At best ‘Love Burns’ was brought right down to the live
garage groove is was dying for all along. But it’s not
what we crave for and expect that amazes us tonight,
it’s what we’re not waiting for, where they take what
we already know. An extended ‘Red Eyes & Tears’ bores
a hole through its sullen atmosphere and really lets
loose, and a 15 minute version of ‘Salvation’ soars
wildly through the song’s potential heights, finally
wrapping itself around the ‘Roses ‘I Am The Resurrection’
and the Charlatans’ ‘Sproston Green’, leaving the tattered
audience in a sticky stop-start shoe-gazing-psychedelia
overloaded climax. Whoa. And tap onto the end of that
earlier blazes through criminally unchampioned b-sides
‘Screaming Gun’, ‘Kill the U.S. Government’ and hair-raising
set closer ‘Fail-Safe’ with its lacerating overdrive,
and you have a set without a fault worth mentioning.
There’s little point analyzing much further, they have
unveiled the complete picture. Together they don’t have
to try because it’s already there. And they don’t just
show you, they take you there.
more info:
www.blackrebelmotorcycleclub.com
Black
Rebel Motorcycle Club - MySpace
Black
Rebel Motorcycle Club Wikipedia
James Berry for Crud Magazine© 2002
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04/02
1 Giant Leap - My Culture
04/02
Elfpower Interview - Andrew Rieger - Creatures
04/02
Frou Frou Interview - Guy Sigsworth/Imogen
Heap
04/02
Gomez Interview - Ian Ball
04/02
Idlewild - Live - London Astoria
04/02
K's Choice Interview
04/02
Leaves - Live - Camden Dingwall
04/02
Longwave Interview - Exit
04/02
Lucy Mongrel Interview
04/02
Oasis - The Hindu Times
04/02
Phantom Planet - Interview
04/02
Unwritten Law - Interview
04/02
VUE - Coordinates Interview
05/02
BRMC - LIve - Kentish Town, London
05/02
Breeders - Title K
05/02
FC Kahuna - Machine Says Yes
05/02
Blackrebel Motorcycle Club Interview ~ Nick
Jago
05/02
Moco - Live - London Monarch
05/02
Need New Body - Interview
05/02
The Soundtrack of Our Lives - Live - Soundhause,
Northampton
05/02
The Bellrays - Meet The Bellrays
06/02
Fleadh Festival - Finsbury Park
06/02
Frou Frou Coordinates Interview
06/02
Incubus - Interview - Mark Einziger
06/02
North Mississippi Allstars - Interview
06/02
Papa Roach - She Loves Me Not
06/02
Proud Mary - Live - Northampton, Soundhaus
06/02
Pulp - Live - Sherwood Pines, Edwinstowe
06/02
Reindeer section - You Are My Joy
06/02
Silverchair - Diorama
|  | 06/02 Something Corporate - Leaving Through The Window
06/02 Soinc Youth - Interview
06/02 The Burn - The Smiling Face
06/02 The Coral - Live - Roadmender, Northampton
06/02 The LIbertines - Live - The Social, Nottingham
06/02 The Vines, Sheffield Leadmill
06/02 Trik Turner - Interview
06/02 Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Live, Soundhaus, Northampton
07/02 12 Stones Interview
07/02 Arolo -Interview
07/02 Buy To Let Doncaster - Anti Social Behaviour
07/02 Cassius - Interview
07/02 Farrah - Interview
07/02 Glassjaw - Interview
07/02 Neil Michael Haggerty - Interview
07/02 Hoobastank - Running Away
07/02 Leaves - Interview
07/02 LL Cool Jay Interview
07/02 Oasis - Live - Finsbury Park, London
07/02 Polyphonic Spree - Live - Camden Monarch
07/02 Queens of the Stone Age - Songs For The Deaf
07/02 Super Furry Animals - Interview
07/02 The Beatings - Live - Metro Club London
07/02 The Bellrays + The D4 - Virgin Megastore, Oxford Street London
January 2001
July - August 2001
September - October 2001
November - December 2001
January - March 2002
April - July 2002
August - December 2002 | |
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