Von Südenfed – Fabric, London, Friday, 6th July 2007

MES and Mouse on Mars play gig in centre of London and noone on the forum has anything to say about it ?

Yes, I was wondering too.
I can't find any evidence of the event on the net.

I'm too old for Fabric.

Yes especially when it seems most of the forum is goo ga with the album


me thinks................

i was wondering the same - i was actually there but due to circumstances beyond my reasonable control my memory is too blurry of the whole evening to provide anything approaching a review of proceedings.

i'm a bit disappointed by that but enjoyed it nevertheless.

far too inebriated to provide a set list. they were due on at 12-12:40 (it being a nightclub with a fairly disciplined running order of djs and what not - how MES is going to survive in this kind of environment for very long god only knows). but i think in any case it was a fair bit after that that they actually came on

they played longer though so it is probably the longest i've personally seen MES play for.

he seemed on good form and very coherent (or i could have just been on his wavelength i don't know). he wandered on and off stage a lot whilst the mouse on mars lads played on. kept disappearing into a door stage left and you thought he'd gone then he'd re-emerge. at one point he was joined on stage by these four burlesque dancers (you know the kind you get at this kind of establishment) at either side of the stage which is a sight i never thought i'd see. they seemed to be avoiding him.

notable use of clip board to remember lyrics certainly at one stage. the crowd seemed a bit indifferent to it. i left after von sudenfed. i've never been to fabric before and won't be rushing back. there was a huge queue to get in as i left the building. there's no educating some people.

Thank you, 'grow.

Priceless. Absolutely wunderbar!

Very sad I couldn't attend. Thanks for the report, fuckit.

Fabric is horrid. Gig was bloody blimey marvellous tho'. Transvestites on stage swirling round Smith who was looking well. Stuff was -

Speech Contamination
Rhinohead
Flooded
Fledermaus
Family Feud
instrumental of Duckrog

lyrics variously used from Brainskin and Family Feud.

Including one bit where, evidently mislaying the mot juste, he scurried through his copious notes before finding what he wanted and singing,

'I am the great MES'.

Anyway, the gig was really really good as I say. Rhinohead, not a massive favourite of mine on the album, was fantastic, as was Flooded. Mouse on Mars were brilliant.

There was an excellent bit where Smith had been sounding a little quiet, during Fledermaus, and then he got Andi I think it was 's mike and blasted out the 'can't get it now, but I can get it' cat call to great effect.

Left the stage to have a 'chat' to the transvestites, one of whom came back on stage to mutter some information to Andi, who smiled wryly and muttered something back before apparently dispatching the tranny to get Smith back on stage. My impression was that Smith had confused the end of Flooded with Family Feud, or was trying to get through things double quick and so had left somewhat prematurely.

Anyway they seemed very tolerant of Smith's minor acts of sedition, amused rather than irritable. Smith came back on fo a bit. Then he went off again and they did an excellent instrumental version of Duckrog.

Everyone was on very very good form. Smith handed out the mike to the audience, and got his fair share of mike switching and knob twiddling in. The music was excellent, as were the vocals. Some of the audience seemed a bit perplexed, as well they might, perhaps having gone to Fabric to 'large' it, but on the whole the reception was enthusiastic.

'Who is this man,' a young chap asked one of my friends, 'And what is he shouting about?'

Felix

Wow. That's one of the greatest sentences ever uttered about MES. Dozens of albums, five gigs, three books and one excellent BBC documentary later, I'm nowhere near understanding who he is or what he's shouting about.

Thanks for the great review, Felix!

This reminds me of Jandek in Bristol last year, playing a ten-minute song, the entire lyrics of which were, "You've got to wrap it up / Send me your present", but repeatedly consulted his lyric stand before repeating the line.

That sounds very Benny Hill. Are you sure it wasn't the album cover stars?

That sounds very Benny Hill. Are you sure it wasn't the album cover stars?

It was indeed the cover stars.

i remember that bit now. thanks for the various reminders and corrections to my account felix. good to know i didn't dream it all. i'm really going to try not to be that battered again for the islington gigs.

I was there the week before. Somehow I missed the fact this was happening.

Fabric is rubbish now though.. highlighted by the fact I showed up there around 4 AM having come straight from the magnificent FWD, which is definitely where it's at these days..

About half-way through the gig my friend turned to me and said "its like being at the circus". Due to the size of the stage and the amount of people moving around on it (andi and jan, mark, three tranvestites, somebody wandering around with a video camera and a few others at the sides) i thought this was a pretty apt observation. Seeing Mark pointing at one of the cross-dressers and shouting "you're the DJ tonight!" was probably the highlight for me, although Family Feud was stunning and, as mentioned above, rhinohead took on a life of its own, leaving the mediocre album version WAY behind. The ending was pretty sureal as andi and jan finished the rythmns and just made strange squeaky/feedback noises for about 2 minutes. I was right at the front and turned around at this bit to see most of the audience standing still and looking puzzled. Overall: damn good.

Does anyone have pictures of Mark with the dancers? I can imagine that this was a hilarious Kodak moment?!