The Fall
Bierkeller, Bristol, Wednesday October 17, 2001

Lineage:
Audience MD Master>CDR>EAC>WAVELAB>FLAC 8
There were a few small glitches and drop-outs on the master and a big chunk of 'The Joke' is missing because the first disc I used kept failing. The intro and the very start of The Joke are rescued from that disc. This is as good and complete as I could get it.

Lineup # 43:
Mark E. Smith (vocals),
Ben Pritchard (guitar),
Jim Watts (bass),
Spencer Birtwistle (drums)
Brian Fanning (guitar)

Setlist (Total Time 63.04)
00 Intro
01 The Joke (incomplete due to disc failure)
02 Cyber Insect
03 Bourgeois Town
04 Crop Dust
05 Kick The Can - F-Oldin Money
06 Mr Pharmacist
07 Antidotes
08 Way Round
09 Bastardo
10 Gotta See Jane
11 Two Librans
12 Hot Runes
13 Touch Sensitive
14 Ibis Afro Man
15 My Ex-Classmates Kids
16 Dr Buck's Letter (Instrumental)



Reviews From The Fall Unofficial Website:
Niall O'Brien:

Pretty good. Venue one level, audience can wander right up to the stage, which isn't elevated much above auditorium. Set list not unlike Liverpool. I'd not heard the CD beforehand but recognised a couple of the new tracks. In no particular order: 

The Joke / Cyber Insect / Bourgeois Town / Mr Pharmacist / Ey Bastardo / Antidotes / Crop Dust / *Unknown* blending into F-oldin Money / Hot Runes / Gotta See Jane / Roundabout (a stormer) / 2 Librans / Encores: Touch Sensitive / Africa Man / Dr Buck's Letter (instrumental) 

The band is tight, drumming & bass particularly so. Jim reminds me of Adam - same sort of stance, bit more lively - in fact the band as a whole wouldn't have got away with this type of bopping 10 or more years ago (I recall Marc Riley once saying he got punched by MES for swopping stage positions with Craig Scanlan to get a better sound!). At one point MES stomped playfully on Pritchard's tapping foot - the guitarist was very efficient (I really liked Crop Dust), but I agree with the previous remark that his Hendrixisms are unnecessary - all pursed lips, pained pouts, smiles along the back line for a 'groovy bit' (!). Dr Buck's Letter was a posturing guitar-hero mess. The rest of the show was really enjoyable though. The other guitarist (Fanning? Blaney?) was more along the Craig dour-face, stationary stance, although even he lightened up at the end when MES made some funny comment. MES in upbeat form all night, but I could barely hear the words despite the usual random switching of mics. Aldershot tonight...


Nick Walters:

"We are the new Fall..." M.E.S. announces on the new album. Well, it was only a few years ago that the last "New Fall" was introduced, but that incarnation of the group at least had a link to the past in the form of Julia Nagle. This latest, newest Fall consists of entirely new members, apart from, obviously, M.E.S. I had my doubts, before the gig, on whether this band could really claim to be called The Fall. But after the gig, those doubts have been soundly and comprehensively trashed. They ARE The Fall - and, amazingly, even more The Fall than ever. 

The Bierkeller is an old haunt of mine, home to the Kandi Klub, host of gigs by such varied acts as Carter USM, Flowered Up, Suede, Chas and Dave, Julian Cope, and in 1997, The Fall, twice. It's a low-ceilinged, sticky-floored, trestle-tabled place with wonky pool tables and shockingly foul toilets. Gigs there tend to be loud, as there's nowhere for the sound to go between the ceiling and the heads of the crowd. 

We arrived at about 9-ish [we being myself, my girlfriend - who had never seen The Fall - and several members of the Bristol SF Group, including Simon, up from Cornwall, whose birthday it was]. The support band were already on, but no-one really paid them much attention. I went straight up to the merchandise stall and bought "Are You Are Missing Winner" without hesitation, relishing the chance to buy the new album actually at the gig. Beers were downed, and after the support left the stage the anticipation mounted. We moved nearer the front, and at about 9.45 some blokes came on the stage and started pummeling through an instrumental I recognised as "The Joke." They were good - tight, disciplined, LOUD - but I felt uneasy. Yes, they were playing a Fall song, but were they The Fall?

After about 5 minutes of this, a door opened at the back of the stage and M.E.S. emerged, "resplendent" in crumpled white shirt, black trousers [with comb visible in arse pocket - never used, judging by the state of his hair] and a lovely, bright red, 10p-sized spot [boil? Goitre? Nascent second head?] on the side of his neck. He uttered the words I'd been dying to hear - "Good evening we are The Fall." And from then on, the band became The Fall. Next, they ran through new song "Bourgeois Town" with its Fall-er than Fall riff, then an almost unrecognisable "Cyber Insekt" [without the chorus!] and then a couple of other songs from the new album. They turned the poppy highlights of "The Unutterable" - "Way Round" and "Hot Runes" - into savage masterpieces of repetition. With no keyboards, and two guitarists, the sound was brutal, punishing. This is how The Fall should be - all attack, no let-up! It struck me that during the Scanlon-Hanley heydays, the Fall live relied on intricate interplay, but this new band now relies more on sheer, muscular thwack. They sound like a new, young band - probably because they are. M.E.S. must take the credit for this - marshalling these lads along, training them until they ARE The Fall [or does he use some special serum?] but equally, the band must take credit. They were great - competent musicians [despite M.E.S.'s hatred of the term] with energy and dedication. They looked like they were working hard, but as the gig progressed they seemed to relax and smiles were seen - even on M.E.S's Davros-like countenance! Their version of "Mr Pharmacist" was close to the original but with added energy. "Two Librans" improved on the original and was the highlight for me - incredible to think this song was written by a different band, so natural did it sound. The final song, the punishing, climbing riff of "Afro Man" ended in a speeded-up jam which left me breathless. Two encores - the last of which ended in an M.E.S.-less "Dr. Buck's Letter". 

And that was it. A storming show, the tightest Fall gig I'd seen in years. And, somehow, this IS The Fall. A new direction which is close to Heavy Metal at times, but powerful and thrilling nonetheless. How long this incarnation will last, no-one can possibly know, but rest assured that whilst it does we're in for some good Fall. And when M.E.S. breaks up the band and hires some new recruits - as, inevitably, he will - the Fall will take another dog-leg and surprise us once more. But that's for the future - for now, this new New Fall will more than suffice.