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“I wish we ruled in the daylight, rock ‘n’ roll shouldn’t
leave the basement,” Paul barked from the lip of the
second stage Friday morning at Glastonbury this year,
as the sleeping hoards awoke to the sound of their dreams
falling down. And though they did rule there and then,
he has a point. Tonight, one-story beneath uneven-pavement-level
on Oxford Street, he’s got his way. But this is the
100 Club which, in spite its illustrious history (i.e.
it put on a couple of punk gigs back in the 70s), is
undoubtedly one of the worst venues in London – stage
the wrong way round, chunky great pillars in the way,
can’t see a thing from 83% of the room, cramped bar,
clunky bar-staff, pictures of ugly jazz blokes on the
walls and a design obviously pre-dating humans’ general
need to breathe. See, it is hot in here. That last sentence
was a complete understatement. There are inverted puddles
of sweat clinging to the ceiling, taking it in turn
to cascade down the walls, everyone is dripping to the
skin and there is a haze clogging most attempts to think
or speak. If London Underground’s too hot in summer
months to legally transport livestock, never mind paying
passengers, then you should think twice about bringing
your calves through here on the way to market, Mr European
Legislator.
Now we know little about the cooling qualities of tweed,
but Paul miraculously survives within a jacket of the
stuff throughout, lunging randomly in his acceptably
unglamorous, unchoreographed manner, like Iggy Pop scuffling
with a terse Mick Jagger in Mark E Smith’s trousers.
And Claire, similarly riding the axis of cool, seems
to refuse to shed a single bead of perspiration. I mean
Jesus, they must be slow-roasting on the same gas-mark
as us inside, but the ice-cool swine sure as hell don’t
look it. Chiseled from a different chalk, these kids.
But we already suspected that. The Martini Henry Rifles
in support (gloriously ramshackle, incidentally) had
previously attired themselves in leather jackets for
their chaotic and not especially together performance,
but then they looked like they’d lost 5 stone between
them by the end. Ikara Colt on the other hand are adding
meat to their bones every time we see them, even if
it’s hanging somewhat looser tonight due to the tortuous
conditions. Bassist Jon, for instance, just looks fucked
– his face the picture of a man drained of all useful
expression. When his bass cuts out, sometime during
‘Video Clip Show’ possibly, he lurches over with a look
of primitive confusion, whacks his bass, boots his amp
and on retrieval of sound gurns gawkily at the front
rows. It’s beautiful to see man and machine operating
as one.
But for all the awkwardness – the heat, the discomfort,
the venue, the far from fancy sound system and the lack
of any vaguely decorative lights, opting instead for
your average yellow bulbs duffly glaring up the stage
– you feel like you’re at something raw, special, or
at the very least not-to-be-repeated. If anything, in
your half present state of mind (and being), you feel
that maybe this was what punk actually was like. Or
at least for your romantic vision you hope punk was
like, because anyway, we’ve got the real thing here
as it is. It was a no compromise set, from Paul’s verbal
altercation with glass throwers (see, the presumed mentality
was there too) to the intent with which they hurled
what they could out. ‘Panic’ and ‘Bring It To Me’ from
the forthcoming ‘Basic Instructions’ EP both feel blunt
and frantic, even stamping on the toes of some previous
stuff. The crowbar dense ‘City Of Glass’ brings things
down to float heavily and satisfyingly with the meltdown
atmosphere and gives respite for a few moments. ‘Rudd’
then raises the levels and ‘Sink Venice’ finally blows
the pressure gauge. But thank fuck for the chance to
get outside. It took 13 bells out of us and then a fair
while to grab any firm type of thought on the whole
shebang, but that can’t all be attributed to the heat.
James Berry for Crud Magazine© 2002
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| 08/02 Beachwood Sparks Interview
08/02 Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head
08/02 Goldrush - Don't Bring Me Down
08/02 Montgolfier Brothers Interview
08/02 Wilco - Interview - Jeff Tweedy
09/02 Apples In Stero Interview
09/02 Audio Vent Interview - Band Of Brothers
09/02 Beck - Sea Change Listening Party
09/02 Bon Jovi - Everyday
09/02 Peter Gabriel - UP - Signal To Noise Ratio
09/02 Ikara Colt - Live - 100 Club, London
09/02 Joy Zipper - Ron
09/02 Kathryn Williams - No One Takes You Home
09/02 Carling Weekend Leeds Festival
09/02 Noise Therapy - Interview - Ron Thiessen
09/02 Splender Interview
10/02 Dragpipe Interview
10/02 Foo Fighters - One By One
10/02 Goldrush - Live - Camden, Dingwalls
10/02 Hell Is For Heroes - Live - Brixton Academy , London
|  | 10/02 Jetplane Landing - Live - Grage , London
10/02 Kinesis - Live - Grage , London
10/02 Ladytron - Seveteen
10/02 Longwave - Live - Water Rats, London
10/02 My Computer - Live - Camden Monarch, London
10/02 Polyphonic Spree - Tour Dates
10/02 Silvertide Interview
10/02 Simian - Live - Bethnal Green Working Men's Club, London
10/02 System of A Down - Steal This Album
10/02 Talib Kweli - Quality
12/02 A - Live - Brixton Academy, London
12/02 Audio Bullys - We Don't Care
12/02 Aurelius 7 Interview
12/02 Burning Brides Interview
12/02 D4 - Live - Mean Fiddler, London
12/02 Kickrollers
12/02 Top Ten Albums 2002
January 2001
July - August 2001
September - October 2001
November - December 2001
January - March 2002
April - July 2002
August - December 2002 | |
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