Birmingham Barfly, Thursday, 22nd November 2007

Not bad, not bad at all…

From memory, and possibly in a slightly different order…a fairly short set but a good one…

I’m Me, Mark
Wings
Wolve Kidult Man
Fall Sound
I’ve Been Duped
Can Can
Pacifying Joint
Blindness
What About Us

Systematic Abuse
Mr Pharmacist

Highlight of the evening for me was Can Can, (although MES was absent for the first half of it)…this could be quite something quite spectacular when it’s fully formed, great choppy guitar and a subtle synth melody underneath….

MES has discovered the vibrato function on Pete’s amp in a big way…some very strange guitar noises throughout the latter part of the set…

Thanks a lot, Simon! This is like breaking news...

Yep, a quality gig - some good humour on stage and all the usual knob twiddling antics; turning the bass amp off completely during 'What About Us' (I think), taking one of the crash cymbals away and dropping it on the floor (MES hit the cymbal with his mike at one point and smashed the pop shield), turning the guitar amp off towards the end of Mr Pharmacist etc.

MES and the rest of the band were actually in the Big Bull earlier on before the gig but left when it started to fill up a bit (MES left nearly a full pint!)

Here's some photos.

My first fall gig of the 'new' line up - thought Pete G. played an absolute stormer, and actually thought the MES mic dandling/'on stage mixing' actually seemed to someway work for once- the guitar amp tremelo n micing especially. Not so sure about the whole turning off/getting the roadie to sing business though... or how purposeful anything really was.

I found the 'one riff per song' business kinda tiresome. Enjoyed an early one that was sorta Hawkwind like, but some just drag on and on to the point of laziness.

Not great, not bad, not average... Far superior to this time last year.

Totally appreciate it's smith's style etc, but I didn't really catch a word I didn't already know all night. And despite whatever I think that kinda sucks. If only because I'm sure he might be saying something interesting sometimes. Too easy to be like that and spout any sort of rubbish too.

My immediate early am viewzzzzzzzzz...x

Thanks for the link to the photos - nice.
Elena looks like an alien from outerspace with that hat on.........

Was MES as sloshed as he was at the Bolton gig?

That's the best sort of alien there is in my book

I was distinctly under-whelmed by last night's gig. By comparison with the two Edinburgh shows earlier in the year, it was poor. The sound was awful, just a big fat sludge - had MES p!ssed off the venue staff perhaps and this was therefore deliberate? The new line-up seemed very dull and what was the roadie doing singing on a couple of tracks? I got the impression that MES is aiming for a more lo-fi sound thsi time around but it doesn't really mix with chunka-chunka-chunka bass riffs.

I've written the band off before so I won't make that mistake again. Maybe the band is just in transition but I wasn't that impressed. Last night was a disapointment in what is a great little venue IMO. I saw Psychic TV (RIP Mrs P'O) a while back and the sound was superb then.

Was I the only one to take a negative view away?

That'd be a first !

But same here when I was at the Berlin gig this year. A lot of it was a bit ho-hum but then listening back to it, it was very good. Go figure. You get new ears every day, I dunno.

Maybe.

I thought they were superb.

It can't help the sound what with MES's constant fiddling. I just wish the bassist would use a plectrum to give it a tougher edge.

Halleluiah.

Mmm....(strokes chin)....... I've been wrestling with that one all day, probably not helped by the fact that I have a stupendous hangover.

What I saw I enjoyed but there were some niggles - firstly this gig was touted as presenting material from the new album, well unless that album is FHR "collectors edition" I think theres still quite a lot of writing to do. Four tracks? Not exactly brimming with new material was it (although I did like the versions that I heard), album out in March? Behave.

Second, Pacifying Joint and What About Us in the same set, both good tunes but very much cut from the same cloth - do they really still belong in there two years after FHR was being toured? One or the other would be fine.

Blindness, sorry but IMO this line up can't do it justice. It should be brutal & punishing but just sounded ragged to me last night. Either tighten it up or drop it.

Positive stuff, from the sound of the new material, I think we're moving into heavier & more dense territory & I'm genuinely excited to see what else will come off the line.

Venue was great, nice & compact even if it did remind me of a stripped out boiler room! Venue staff seemed pleasant and the security people were efficient without being twats which is always nice to see. From where I was standing it all sounded pretty good as well.

Always a pleasure to meet up with forumites for a pint & this time no exception - the Anchor Inn certainly had some "characters" , a local pub for local people I feel


So, a few mixed feelings on this one, but then I'm enough of a fanboy wanker that if MES stood at the front of the stage & read his shopping list whilst urinating on my head I'd probably quite enjoy that as well......... roll on Cricklewood (just with a bit more 'new' stuff please..?)

What he said - Billybigbananas. Enjoyed it - as you do. Just seemed to lack a little bit of the usual 'edge'.

I thought it was a great venue and an excellent performane. The enthusiastic crowd wanted more than the one encore and helped make it a good atmosphere. Mark looked a bit toasted but his vocals were still powerfull and with the clear sound system it was good to hear some new (to me) songs that were simple & typical of the fall at their best. I think that when they are on fullbore playing simple stuff they are still a great night out. OVER.

Via Dynamik, who appeard to have been beaten like a Chipperfield monkey.

M.E.S. left a full pint that should be in "Ripley's Believe or Not"

My first Fall gig as I only got into the band a few months ago now and I was impressed. Thought the band were spot on. Agree with BillyBB about 'Blindness', saw the 'Heads Roll' band perform this on Jools Holland on Youtube countless times and it is relentness, this bands version was by no means poor, but I felt slightly underwhelmed.

Thought it was bizzare getting the roadie to sing the start on one of the tracks and MES performing one song from the dressing room but i was told beforehand to expect the unexpected.

Also, who was that twat beforehand going all that VJ bollocks? I mean, wtf!??

Yeah he was off his face in Bolton, he was a bit more with it here and looked well I thought. His group was pretty together as well.

It sounded a lot different to Bolton. I thought they were going off in a new direction but when I read some of the reviews on here I thought … maybe it was just a crappy PA and I never realised! I thought that’s what it was supposed to sound like. This time it sounded like a lot of other Fall gigs, quite warm and fuzzy where the Bolton one was harsh.

I was a bit late getting there though and missed the start. For some reason this time they went on early instead of fashionably late. About 300 there in total? – it was quite a small building and it wasn’t packed out.

Some people thought it was a bit perfunctory, I thought it was a pretty good gig. I reckon most people there would’ve thought it was worth it and a good night out.

I didn’t know MES switched off the guitar for Mr Pharmacist, I just thought he’d banned Pete from playing the solo or something. I like What About Us? And don’t get tired of hearing it at gigs. New material sounds promising too. I agree with teenagesensation on this thread, there’s some excellent Hawkwind-like elements in the new Fall.

The keyboards have come through quite strong in both the last two gigs I think. And the group sounds better for it. Last year or earlier I think, at a lot of gigs you could hardly hear the keyboards at all. Maybe I’m wrong about that though?

Thanks for posting the photos acrmcr. Sometimes The Fall have great backdrops but this was not one of them, you can see that in the pictures. It just this lime green lettering projected onto a screen, that’s what it looks like.

It would want to.

Was I wrong to assume this would be torrented somewhere??

Or You sended or my spaced?

Come on bootleggers! Pull yer fingers out (of your dalek hats).