Supported by ‘Be Quiet, Shout Loud’ and ‘The Blue Prints’
I can’t believe it’s exactly year since I saw Electric Six live. Granted I saw the lead singer Dick Valentine earlier in the year on his solo tour to support his acoustic album, but it has been a whole twelve months since the six of them last stepped onto the stage and I was there to witness them.
A lot has happened since their last appearance. Aside from that aforementioned solo album we’ve had the incredible, but cut-back live-album ‘Absolute Pleasure’, a slight disappointment in the promised live-DVD at the upcoming Shepherd’s Bush date being shelves, an excellent new ‘Evil Cowards’ album and the Colonel jumping ship to be replaced by the seductively titled ‘Da Ve’.
It was great to return to Fibbers though but annoyingly this was the first time I’d not been there at the opening time on the dot – considering the supports don’t usually come on for ages – so we missed about fifteen minutes of opening band ‘Be Quiet, Shout Loud’, though I did meander a while at the merchandise table before picking up a physical copy of the second ‘Evil Cowards’ album to replace my lower quality .mp3 download.
‘Be Quiet, Shout Loud’ looked like, on the surface, as if someone had tried to assemble a replacement for Electric Six when they couldn’t make a gig, with each instrument that the six have present and correct but with a completely different person on them. They had a similarity in sound as well and this, combined with the fact the vocals were crisp and clear and the music interestingly composed, meant I really enjoyed them and regretted stopping off for an over-onioned burger at a local take-away instead of heading straight to Fibbers. They closed on a song with lots of lyrics named after the band – or possibly the other way round – (“You’ll Never Know How To Dance”) which is an interesting novelty and the crowd interaction during this was excellent, also helped by their riffing of ‘Down At McDonnelzzz’ during the instrumental opening, which is the best Segway of Electric Six into a support that I can remember. Granted, the only competition is the act a few years ago who said each song he was to play was called by the same title as an E6 song.
I can’t remember the titles of the songs they played but most were of the type that were instantly enjoyable and singable and they’re definitely a band I’d like to hear more from and their MySpace songs are well worth a listen for their similar sound but interesting production (http://uk.myspace.com/bequietshoutloud/)
The second support was the York-based ‘The Blue Prints’ (http://uk.myspace.com/theblueprintsuk) who, unlike the first band, didn’t enjoy the same clear sound and the lead singer’s vocals were quiet and muffled, an issue that unfortunately stretched into the main act. Though not as all-out party as the first support this was another strong act that I’d love to hear more from, so I’ll be holding out for their much talked about album that they chatted about between songs. The lead singer had a gentler voice than the first act but just as enjoyable and the four-piece band were tight and the synths at a good volume to hear. Stand out tracks for me were ‘Staring at the Sun’ and ‘The Wave’ and with a louder mix for the vocals would have been even more enjoyable. It’s great to go to a gig where the support acts are actually enjoyable rather than some I’ve been to.
Setlist:
Three Minutes
Black and Blue
Another Breakdown
Staring At The Sun
The Wave
Walk
Now onto the main act, but first a quick bit of a lesson on gigs. I’ve come to the conclusion that no matter what gig I find myself at there is always the ‘gig tosser pairing’. At ‘Spector’ in ‘The Duchess’ above Fibbers a month or so ago it was the middle-aged man trying to re-live his youth but coming across as a tosser. At last month’s ‘The Lancashire Hotpots’ gig, also in Fibbers, it was the young couple who couldn’t get the concept of not being heard above the loud music and wouldn’t take no for an answer. At this gig it was, primarily, the just past puberty kids near the front with one in particular already wasted – probably on just two ciders – by the time the Blue Prints came on and then proceeded to get more and more irritating as the gig wore on. I’m not against 14+ gigs but if it’s going to attract kids that get their first taste of alcohol and then proceed to regress ten years then let’s have an age cap. Either that or I am just sounding old. The crowd did seem to be pretty young in parts and, from when Dick asked if it was the first gig for anyone, it seemed to be a lot of people’s first time, perhaps attracted by the lure of hearing their ‘debut’ album ‘Fire’ in full for the first time, rightly or wrongly seen as their biggest and best album.
That said, there were nicer members of the crowd and it was great to meet K-Man and Mel again, including some that treated those gathered there to impromptu versions of ‘Chocolate Pope’ and ‘The Band In Hell’ between E6 and the previous support act. Perhaps they weren’t aware of anything beyond ‘Switzerland’, like a travel-reticent cuckoo-clock maker.
Rant over, Electric Six came on stage to much applause and a packed venue and gave us three tracks initially, starting with a spot-on cover of The Osmond’s ‘Crazy Horses, as heard on ‘Absolute Pleasure’, and it sounded just as good as on the live CD even if the backing vocals were a little too quiet. As a follow-up we were treated to a big thing for me, a live version of KILL track ‘The Newark Airport Boogie’, one I’ve never heard live and it was amazingly done and great to hear as a full sung song and not through a vocoder; it proved to be one of my favourite tracks of the night and really showed off the band and had some great synth from Tait Nucleus?
The opening trio was rounded off by one of my favourite songs by the band, ‘Jam It In The Hole’ which was, as expected, great.
We then got the whole of ‘Fire’ presented to us. It was paradoxically unusual to hear ‘Dance Commander’ this early on, usually an encore song, and Dick’s showcasing of each band member during the last bit seemed weird, but it was a well rendered version of the track and got the crowd pumping.
Now, having not seen the band live until their ‘Senor Smoke’ tour, I missed out on hearing a lot of the songs from ‘Fire’ live and thus hearing ‘Electric Demons (In Love)’, one of my all-time favourite songs by the band, was a real treat and was nailed as a song. They continued rattling through the songs with ‘Naked Pictures (Of Your Mother)’ and ‘Danger! High Voltage’ (complete with Monifah ‘Touch Me’ addition) were both as well received as each other. We got ‘She’s White’ complete with the usual ‘My Drummer’ monologue. Though a little shorter than usual we did get the gem of a line, following chants of ‘Yorkshire! Yorkshire!’ by the crowd after mentioning the drummer is from Doncaster, Dick saying ‘Doncaster is in Yorkshire. Asshole’. Great put down!
The tracks came thick and fast with little speaking between them, with ‘I Invented The Night’ being another track new to me and it fitted in well. ‘Improper Dancing’ got the crowd going – perhaps a little too much as a fight broke out in the mosh pit and I nearly got in the crossfire of some fisticuffs – though it was a shame that there was nothing slotted in between the ‘Stop!’ and ‘Continue!’ (and I was annoyed that I missed these lines because of the stupid fight.
The appearance of ‘Gay Bar’ with its extended middle section naturally got the crowd going and the short-but-sweet ‘Nuclear War (On The Dancefloor)’ sat there nicely, and as they continued it was difficult to believe that guitarist ‘Da Ve’ has only been with them a short time. ‘Getting Into The Jam’ passed by nicely – though it’s not one of my favourite tracks and ‘Vengance and Fashion’, with ‘The Dirty Shame’ version of one of the lines, was great to hear and said to be Dick’s favourite track on the album. I don’t necessarily agree but it was nice to hear live even if I have fond memories of the mash-up they once did between it and ‘Vibrator’.
‘I’m The Bomb’ was another joy to hear, even if the spoken bits in the bridge got lost due to the sound mix, and album closer ‘Synthesizer’ was strong on synths, crowd buzz and, of course, waving.
With the album dealt with, we got three more tracks from the band, three tracks which could be seen as the band’s showcase. ‘Down At McDonnelzzz’ got the crowd going even more with its call-and-response bridge and personal favourite ‘Dance Epidemic’, with an unusual, unexpected but ultimately enjoyable chorus change to Dick going ‘Hey! Ho’ (not in Robbie ‘Candy’ way) whilst the rest of the band did the honours of the usual chorus, proving to be a hit. They closed the main set, naturally, with ‘I Buy The Drugs’ which rounded things off nicely and the crowd were happy to oblige in singing the middle-eight back to the band.
As this was at Fibbers, it was once more too short a set, coming in at around eighty minutes, and it’s my one annoyance about gigs there that I’d rather have one less support – even when they were the quality of those on the night – and more E6. And though the expected encore was a measly one song, concluding twenty-minutes before the advertised curfew, it was a corker and my favourite song of the evening. ‘Clusterfuck!’, one of my favourite tunes on ‘Zodiac’ was an even better beast live with the tempo-changes handled incredibly and the singable nature of the live song something to behold. It was truly a great ending to the gig.
Overall, it was brilliant to see the band again. The ability to hear ‘Fire’ in full in celebration of the album anniversary was well worth it, especially when I never saw the original tour ten years ago. The seven songs selected to accompany it were a good range of tunes – though no love for ‘Flashy’ or ‘Heartbeats and Brainwaves’ – and though I could list a long list of tracks I missed not hearing, for a special tour it was ideal really.
The supports were equally as good to hear even if it did mean the main act was shorter at eight minutes, and the vocal sound was disappointing in a venue that usually excels in this area, and some of the crowd would have been better outside than in.
However, it was a great night from a fantastic band, delivering twenty songs with energy and fun and I look forward to seeing them again on the 15th in London where they’ve promised even bigger things.
Setlist
Crazy Horses
The Newark Airport Boogie
Jam It In The Hole
Dance Commander
Electric Demons
Naked Pictures (Of Your Mother)
Danger! High Voltage
I Invented The Night
She's White
Gay Bar
Nuclear War (On The Dancefloor)
Getting Into The Jam
Vengeance And Fashion (The Dirty Shame version)
I'm The Bomb (Computer chorus)
Synthesizer
Down At McDonnellzzz
Dance Epidemic
I Buy The Drugs
Clusterfuck!
