Saturday, 1 December, 1979 – Palladium Theater, New York, United States 

 

  1. Fiery Jack
  2. Muzorewi’s Daughter
  3. Rowche Rumble
  4. Various Times
  5. Psykick Dancehall
  6. Flat of Angles
  7. Choc-Stock

NOTES

28 minutes

Guy Ewald in the February 1980 New York Rocker:

“The second-billed Fall saved the show for me. What an attitude on these guys — they acted like the audience wasn’t even there. Lead singer Mark E. Smith casually paced the stage, one hand in his pocket, as he sang, screamed, screeched and preached over the band’s pumping, menacing drone. Without traditional R&R dynamics, the Fall constructed an impressive wall of sound; the set ended with the guitarists crouched over their small amplifiers, wrestling the last sounds from their instruments. A few heads bobbed, a few mouths booed, but as Smith would later tell the NYR, the Fall are “not about rock ‘n’ roll,” but ideas. An intriguing and highly original band.”

An audience tape of middling quality. The sound suffers from being recorded in what appears to be a large echoing hall. The drums are muffled, the bass non-existent but the guitars and vocals are reasonably presented.

Supporting the Buzzcocks the band are in venomous mood. Scratchy, scribbly and angry. The audience noise is acceptable on this lo-fi recording with Mark sounding like he is singing in a large metal can. A vital record of the bands first American tour and a precursor to the next but one nights better recorded gig in Cambridge Massachusetts. Notably this is one of the handful of three currently available gigs from the nine date tour.

I am trying to picture how an American audience would have reacted at the time to this particularly English sound. Notably the applause is reasonably fulsome around the taper and there are a fair few whoops and hollers but the general impression gained is that the band did not captivate the whole audience.

Memorable also is Smiths’ reading of “Flat of Angles” with the psychic yelp of the other material being replaced by a sardonic and emotive mix of wordplay.