1. Is This New
  2. Wings
  3. Wolf Kidult Man
  4. 50 Year Old Man
  5. I’ve Been Duped
  6. Fall Sound
  7. Pacifying Joint
  8. Mountain Energei
  9. Reformation!
  10. Tommy Shooter
  11. White Lightning
  12. Latch Key Kid
  13. Blindness
  14. Mr. Pharmacist

NOTES

64 minutes

A  muscular start to the gig. Mark talks about various issues including cradles, lakes and for some reason Lancashire Cheese, as opposed the Cheshire variety.

“Wings” is suitably fine, and a blistering “Wolf” leads into a memorably different thrashy opening to “”50 year old” which resolves into a brilliant reading full of tension, light and shade with a bubbling technoish extended section between 3 and 5 minutes in – an exceptional thumping middle bit with coarse scraping noises that folds into the “Inferior Product” section with consummate ease – glorious stuff.

Again Ms Poulou is a little low in the mix for “Duped” how this is a great playful version of said track – wonderful shouty but at the same sinuous and sultry, dripping with sensuous subtle tones. MES joins in at the end for some guttural trills. These continue for a transcendent “Fall Sound” unfortunately beset in parts by some low-level audience noise. Some excellent whammy bar noises from Pete on this. Also great interactive riffing and real dynamic drumming from Keiron.

A fast “Pacifying” is probably the weakest thing (relatively speaking) of the gig, a memorable Mountain Energie part of which is captured on this page has that great swamp rock feel to it that characterised the American band – I have to say Mr Smith is wonderfully animated on this -and the initial section is wonderfully restrained.

“Reformation” – consistent with the rest of the gig – is a tour de force – as stunning ramble through “Neu!” derived motorik suburbia – intercepted with masterful guitar extemporisation and a burring/buzzing Kraftwerkian synth palette. Mark repeats and relates throughout in perfect context. It builds into this mammoth wall of noise which then resolves into atonal cacophony from Pete as Mark howls and moans and shouts as EP provides a constant pulse.

Niki does most of “Tommy Shooter” as Mark appears at the end to add colour. The taper misses a bit of “White Lightning” and there is some audience participation. This is followed by a laconic “Latch Key Kid”.

Blindness is an unmitigated example of genius from scouring sound to the dance of the missing tie and mike stands at the end. A suitably funky intro after which at one point Mark advises he has been listening to Simply Red all day and then the band launches into a wonderful wall of sound.

Mr Pharmacist is a visceral mass of coruscating noise with Brother Cadfael in the white shirt collecting leads and microphones with apparent disregard for the band in mid-flow.

An amazing gig and a high point of this tour.