Koko, Camden, Wednesday, 1st April 2009

Superb gig.

One hour and a couple of minutes.

Possible setlist (order probably wrong):

Hot Cake
My Door
Wolf Kidult Man
Fall Sound
Fifty-Year-Old Man
Chino Splashback
Funnel Of Love
Latch Key Kid
I've Been Duped
Carry Bag Man
Reformation (MES sings from off-stage)

Encore:
White Lightning (MES sings from off-stage)
Blindness (MES sings from off-stage)

**

Very crisp, clear vocals. Singing from the wheelchair seems to allow Mark to concentrate more on how he sings.

Some amp twiddling: the excellent sound for the first few songs became muddier as Mark messed with the equipment.

Elena's new effects added to the sound, as did the vocal tape(?) running in the background in the gaps between some songs.

Most surreal moment: The Fall start the show with Safi's Barbra Streisand film still playing on the screen.

The moshiest moshpit I have ever had the moshfortune to be moshed by.

***

01. Wolf Kidult Man [excerpt]/Fall Sound [excerpt]

02. Fifty-Year-Old Man [excerpt] (with very odd high vocals)

03. Blindness [excerpt], with MES vocals from offstage

Couldn't make it, surprised no new new numbers, but sounds like I missed a good one. Did it get taped? Of course it did

Fuck Fuck Fuck

ing brilliant.

Possible ad lib: "Mr Spock and Bastard Two Wheels"?

Telephone Thing chorus excerpt superbly sung, well-on-the-beat by front row guy via Eleni-donated mike at the end of Blindness/

Fantastic sound.

Mark trilling-rolling his Rs on Wolf Kidult man - beautiful.

Get a record of this one...I love you Mark and The Fall

It was pro-filmed too.

It was pro-filmed too.

As was Hammersmith

what a nice venue, full of good taste.

not only the optics had been polished, the sound was clear crystaline.
the mix was fine maybe the guitar was a bit underrepresented. That was corrected in the very end...

London seems to force the stagetime, good so. the performance with the singing from behind makes the best of this unhealthy situation. very well done!




it looks like the band is a bit polite still.


In totale I had really enjoyed it, prefered this night by miles compared to the junction yesterday.
nice to have met Stephen, Shane and Daren (yes, he from The Gales).

Awful mushy sound from back of the auditorium. Couldn't get much closer.

Tonight's surprise hit: I've Been Duped... first time the shouty chorus made sense to me.

As usual, massive improvement in band towards the end of the gig.

A few more things:

1. Surprising number of glamorous young women in the crowd.
2. Mark seemed to be hiding behind the amp for much of the show. I was as near to the front as I could get without being knocked out by the moshers, but I think anyone further back would have had trouble seeing him.
3. No one seemed sorry when Safi's set was cut short.
4. Very packed yet extremely cold in the front/middle due to the air-conditioning.
5. I filmed three segments on my camera and will try to upload these to YouTube. They are quite shaky due to the continuous barrage of elbows in my face and kidneys.
6. Elena was very smiley: seemed to be enjoying the enthusiastic reaction. As noted above, she handed the mic out at the very end of Blindness. Someone sang Telephone Thing exactly in time with the rhythm.
7. One of the best Fall shows of recent years.
8. Jazzy influence on new tracks.
9. Impressive 'country' interlude on Fifty Year Old Man, with very odd singing from Mark.
10. Mark managed to stand up a couple of times, to great cheers.
11. Guitar too low in mix, until during Blindness it absolutely exploded in a sudden burst of noise just before the end of the show.

Easily the best sound I've ever heard from a Fall gig, even if it all did seem a bit quiet and sedate compared to the times I've seen them in Glasgow.

Had a great laugh at MES' lackeys being sent from backstage to amp-twiddle.

Eleni looked really concerned for Mark when he went off stage - she had her jacket on immediately and kept looking round to check on him. I thought it was sweet.


I'm really heartened by Mark's approach to his latest predicament - think it bodes well for him carrying this off well beyond the recommendations of the medical world.

Anyone else got the feeling that this, coupled with the general state of the world, ought to provide great inspiration for the next record?

Brilliant and baffling as always, cracking gig.

'Telephone Thing chorus excerpt superbly sung', was a highlight, as was 'Chino'

Look forward to the recording...

Perhaps it was just me but what was up with the majority of the crowd looking sinister.

One of those young women (well, about half my age anyway) had her nose smashed in the mosh, dear o dear. But she was flayling about in a too-random, paraletic way, asking for nose-trouble I suppose, I hope she's OK.

...and a person on the way out dressed in a Nine Inch Nails vest was saying to colleagues how bad it was, so that confirms it was a good one, for humans, as if needed nighty night..

To say it was one of finest Fall gigs of recent years is pretty hyperbolic.

Not to say it was a bad gig, just pretty underwhelming from a band clearly just going through the motions.

Nothing to do with the wheelchair, which our man dealt with admirably, just felt it was a bit half arsed.

A solid performance with a good sound, the latter seems to be a saving grace for the Koko.

MES knows how to turn a necessity into virtue - the rock 'n roll 'Ironside' was a very effective bit of stagecraft.

They were on time, and I applaud this, although I will be considered a lightweight for mentioning it. An added bonus was not having to see/suffer Safi Sniper.

I must say I'm not hugely impressed by the new material, and I would be interested to know what other people think about it. Does it they grow on you?

Nice to see Billybigbananas, Acton High Street, Man Whose Bed Diminished, Cupid's Bullet, Max, Hanley, Mr Pharmacist, Kelsa Deaf Wife & his friend.

The fact they didn't erupt into an uncontrollable expression of euphoric joy says a great deal about the politeness of Fall fans.

i thought support act bobby peru were most turgid .

I thought the gig was excellent and nice to meet a few of you at the Victoria.

Just one observation. I thought that when MES went off stage (after sandwiching himself between the drums and the bass amp thus requiring assistance) then that would be the end of the twiddling.

No. When off stage, MES sends on a flunky to twiddle the amp controls for him. Imressive attention to detail.

I'd like to stand corrected, but I disagree entirely

I'd like to stand corrected, but I disagree entirely

only dime will tell...

Absolute stonker. I applied the Hanley/Scanlon test - i.e was it at least as good as any gig I've seen played by the Shanley/Craigness line-up, and it certainly was. Tight mesmeric krautrock fronted by Davros, and the sound as ever at Koko was amazing. Lovely JBL monitors pounding out the tight, crisp mix. I was actually dancing out by the toilets at the back due to a short female friend being reluctant to enter the morass. Still had a fab time, enhanced by glimpses of MES chairing around the amps for a fiddle, like a Fall gig in a dream. Saw a friend I hadn't seen for 6 years just as Fall Sound kicked off.

The new stuff sounded the best. Huge fun White Lightning and an earth-shattering Blindness. Still the best live band on earth then.

That was quite a giggle, wasn't it?

Didn't think much of the sound, but then we were in 'the Gods' sandwiched between some of the aforementioned glamorous women, one of whom was dancing rather too enthusiastically for my liking. That is to say, her head kept getting in my way.

Country interlude in 50 Year Old Man was sensational, as was the Telephone Thing singer.

In all, I thought it was one of those gigs you come out of thinking you'd paid your dues rather than it being one of the better ones, but maybe I'd have thought differently if the sound had been better.

Also, a bit of "Secession Man" (early morning...warning...etc). Innit?

I fully agree with what Stephen said above BTW...Mark's being in his easy chair and having to sit down certainly contributed to his excellent performance last night. Growls, rolled 'R's and whatnot. Eleni was wearing a plain white blouse with puffy short sleeves (and she put on her black jacket just before the encore).

The fact they didn't erupt into an uncontrollable expression of euphoric joy says a great deal about the politeness of Fall fans.

And is it me, or does Eleni seem to be a bit more, well, pneumatic these days?