Aberdeen Tunnels – 1st Night, Wednesday 14th March 2007

I've only ever attended about 4 Fall gigs and this was the first time I'd ever been sober at one !!! ... the wife came with me and I had the car

Tonight will be different .. in more ways than one I suspect

I didn't note the setlist tonight, I'm sure someone else will have it but it started with Bo D, ended with Reformation! as an "encore" and was 100 miles an hour in between.

Thanks to the forum I advised the wife that the Fall would not be on til around 10 so we left the house in time to get there for about 9:40 ... 5 minutes after getting there a support band were just coming on !! Miss the Occupier from Glasgow apparently ... some good stuff (a bit Hole meets Sleeper) but also some Transvision Vampesque pants !!

So 10:30 ish comes and the lights go down, the projector fires up and were sure its Fall time ... nope ... we get 20 minutes or so of messed up video DJ nonsense ... is this the Safi you speak of? ... at 9pm I could have handled it but it was getting close to my bed time man


10:50 and the Fall come on stage ... minus Mark of course !! A few minutes of instrumental Bo D and then the man comes on.

The next 40 minutes is sheer brilliance in my book ... tight band, fast an furious set (no Blindness) and it was worth concentrating on tall beardy bass bloke as his facial expressions were class as he tried to work out what Mark was going to do next

At about 11:30, Mark stole beardy blokes bass ... "placed" him on keyboards and they played The Wright Stuff ... as Mark had nothing to do he walked off stage. In The Tunnels, the band have to walk up the side of the crowd to get on and off stage ... I was standing right next to the door the come in and out of.

As the Wright Stuff was getting to an end, Mark stuck his head out of the door and started a rammy with one of the bouncers / crew ... ended up in him violently pouring a bottle of beer on the floor !! It was priceless, a kind of "I'm mad as hell but don't want to do any criminal damage" type moment

The band leave the stage and for 5 minutes we have no idea if they're coming back.

Then the band minus Mark and Elena return to the stage and start Reformation! ... after 3 or 4 minutes I'm convinced it will be instrumental as Marks not coming back !!!

Then Elena comes back out almost dragging Mark !!!

I said to my wife that she'd probably given him a slap and told him to get his arse on stage ... the wife's reply? "he wouldn't feel it, he's got a rubbery face !!"

Mark storms / falls off stage at about 11:50 and we go home !!!

Chaos, too short and too late ... but fantastic

I'll be back tonight and tonight, there will be beers

I might even jump about a bit !!!

Were you the only one there?

Ha! I was wondering the same thing bcb!

Aberdeen. Evidently the Scottish equivalent of Salt Lake City.

thanks for the vivid account of the night

wish I was in Aberdeen..

in no particular order....

one VJ mixer going a little wildstyle

one pumping house DJ, mate of MES playing between sets

post punk pop support

three pink fluffy schoolboys

three bouncers - tappy, fatty and skinny

a very tight and in control band

a Sherwood style mixer, in the form of MES bass and guitar cancelling

a front man who treated the large bouncer as a plaything

all in all a great, if slightly surreal first night at the Tunnels - the second night was equally as good, even if the different set each night promise didn't go quite to plan

The Tunnels' owner loved the gigs so much he is seeing them in Glasgow as well.

Good luck to the Norwegian guy who was following The Fall for all six of their Scottish dates.

Dave

Do you have the setlists for both nights?

Aberdeen as Salt like City....HAhahaha...not too far out there my friend..the Wee Free are cut from the same cloth.

As a Bury man myself. I have seen the Fall many times over the last 17 years or so.

I now live in Aberdeen & attended the Weds night (had to miss Thursday). It was a cracker.

It was a small venue for the Fall to play, great views, up close & really sharp sound.

Best I have seen them for a few good years, double bass setup just fills the sound out so well.

They all just hunkered down almost "Quo"-like & just ripped through "Fall-Sound", pretty storming stuff.

Bo Demmick intro..., Pacifying Joint & What about us...were incendiary.

Mark actaully seemed quite with it @ first & the Vox were very up front & audible. He started to slide a bit when he got the timing wrong on "White Lightening". Then cut the guitar out & removed the bassits from duty. He pushed the guitar volume up to 11 for Sparta FC, which sounded very menacing.

Then came his "altercation" with the tall security bald security bloke (remember the Hills have eyes..That's him in it!). I saw him from the balcony pouring beer on the door & trying to provoke the ape. Until Elena pulled him out of it & literally pushed/pulled him back to the stage...for a brutal rip-tear through Reformation, before he lost interest & called it a night.

I am heading south & will catch them again in April...go along...enjoy.

I will confirm both Aberdeen actual set (play) lists later today.

Does anyone know what the 'B.V.'s on the setlists stand for?

B.V.= backing vocals

bombasti vivace

I was just wondering that myself!

Aha! That makes sense. I was thinking 'Bearded Vagabond'.

HPAFP - Dynamik Consortium recording of this gig now up on Dime.

Toby will have a beer, I'll have a set list.

XX

Brilliant. Two gigs and the US version of RPTLC. Quite a day! Many thanks to all of those involved.