“So, out of ten, what would you give it?” I asked Alan while nursing an expensive Czech beer outside the Spiegeltent in the Iveagh Gardens last week. We had just seen the Fall play and I wanted to know what he thought. Although we started listening to the Fall around the same time, he has seen them play far more often than I have, probably more times than the current line have seen the Fall, barring Mark E. Smith himself, of course.
I, on the other hand, have seen them a couple of times in London, and caught most of their now relatively regular appearances in Dublin over the last five or six years. In that time there have been bad gigs and good gigs and I usually end up enjoying the ones that the more experienced fans hate, and hate the gigs that they love. Not that it makes any difference, as most of them are pretty much the same every time: band plays a rollicking opening track which is ostensibly an extended instrumental; after a moment Smith appears in a brown leather jacket and sings ‘We are the Fall etc’ over the thundering staccato sound. He removes the leather jacket at the end of the first song. Other songs kick through in quick succession, usually several tracks off the most recent album which have been played constantly for the past year in unlikely rock venues up and down Britain and across Europe.
The band of relatively young players performs a tight set. They are disciplined and expressionless mostly, and at some point Smith heads back to twist some knobs on the amps. During the last track, often Blindness, Smith ‘interferes’ with Elena’s playing on the keyboard to produce some extended ear splitting dirge and crude sounding ancient synth effects which seems to get longer each time its performed. This is often the most enjoyable part of the show. The band leaves the stage but returns almost immediately for the encore, play two songs, then exit for the night.
This is the basic format with small variations teased over by those addicts who often travel some distance to see the Fall live. So what were the variations? First was the location. The Spiegeltent itself was quite unlike your usual gig venue, being a round affair with a small stage opposite the entrance which was bordered on either side by neat little wooden balustrades. At first we stood at the side of the stage giving us an all too close view of the band.
Proximity doesn’t lend itself to quality, as the sound for the first few tracks seemed muddy and indistinct, which we reasoned was because we were standing behind the speakers. Also, there’s the danger of getting too close a view of someone you have set apart from others for so long. Smith said of John Peel when recounting their one meeting that you should never meet your heroes, adding ‘and vice versa’. Meaning, I guess, that heroes shouldn’t be forced to meet those strangers who, strangely, adore them. But really, in the case of Smith it is in the fan’s interest to keep their distance.
One man who wasn’t keeping his distance was an old lad, looking all of 70 standing at the side of the stage and waving madly. Someone had asked him if he’d come to see The Fall and he’d reportedly said he’d never heard of them. It’s much more likely that The Fall came to see him as he was probably a semi-permanent resident of Iveagh Gardens.
The first song played was a new song (video above), followed by Wolf Kidult Man, Fall Sound, Fifty Year Old Man and Wings.
Live, Fifty Year Old Man sounded good, but sort of rambled because of the indistinct sound. I couldn’t make out any of the lyrics at all and I’ve only listened to it a few times before I heard it live - I’m not that gone on the new album Imperial Wax Solvent - so for this review I decided to read the lyrics on the Fall Lyrics Parade website. While the lyrics in the other songs on the album tend towards uncontrived randomness Fifty Year Old Man doesn’t disappoint.
Computer doesn’t work for me
I had a Sinclair back in 1983
OL2QU, pre-warranty
And don’t forget he’s still up to it
That Steve Albini
He’s in collusion with Virgin trains
Against meI’m a fifty year old man
I’m a fifty year old manBut it won’t get me
In search of better sound we moved to the front of the stage and got there just in time for The Theme from Sparta FC. The sound did indeed become much sharper at this point, and it turns out that this was due to technical glitches rather than where you were standing. Sparta is a regular favourite, playing to the crowd’s head bobbing tendencies. But it also marked the point where the gig really got going for me, and I started to enjoy it much more than the March show in the Tripod. Next was I’ve Been Duped, which is just bloody annoying [Elena singing repeatedly Iiiiiiiiiiii’ve Beeeeeeeeen DUPED/I’VE-BEEN-DUPED] and then Pacifying Joint, which had Smith dropping the mike into the front of the audience, allowing some young fella to holler to his heart’s content. Tommy Shooter I enjoyed but it passed over my head a bit.
However, Smith introduced Mr. Pharmacist by muttering to one of the other band members ‘Pharmacist, Pharmacist’ tersely. I’m going to admit here that I really enjoyed hearing Mr. Pharmacist again, although I’m assured (with almost professorial distain) that they always play it ‘these days’. In the part of this post that I deleted I explained that I got into the Fall in the late 80s and early 90s and the part of the Fall canon I listened to almost exclusively then included Bend Sinister, This Nations Savings Grace and Extricate. So perhaps I enjoyed it for nostalgic reasons, or maybe it’s just a great song.
And then they were heading off stage, and before enough people could shout for more they were back on, playing Carry Bag Man from The Frenz Experiment - not a song I’m that familiar but great all the same.
The show ended with Blindness (see comments above about extended dirge and keyboard interference, backed up by enjoyable rocking sound from the band). It lasted for ages and ended the night around 12.35 on a high. I’d almost completely dismissed The Fall before this gig, but the sound and energy of Blindness at the end means that I can’t do that as easily any more. Love them or hate them, they’re still a great band.
While standing around as the crowd disbursed a fight broke out near the front where some guy had gone necked a naggin of Whiskey and gone a bit mad. That sort of stuff doesn’t happen too regularly, and I found myself looking on quite mildly as a girl in a blue flower print dress jumped on two of the guys who were throwing punches at each other. The fight was broken up quickly, but the girl with flower print dress was still clearly riled. Once the others had gone she stood looking around sharply, her arms ridged by her sides with her fists clenched and knuckle white. Jim and I while standing nearby somehow caught her eye. As she looked straight at us the lyric from Winter popped into my head: “and the mad kid said, ‘I’ll take both of you on’. But she didn’t, she just left.
Later on, outside the tent Alan answered my question. ‘Four out of ten’, he said. ‘Really? I replied, ‘I’d have given it a seven’.
‘And are you going to go see them again’, I asked, continuing on a conversation we’d started earlier on.
‘Nope’.
Yea, Alan, that’s what you said last time.
____________
Photo Credits:
Black and White photo of Smith from David Kelly Flickr account and the other photos from Free Ranger, on the Fall online forum.
so talking briefly to the auld bloke you mention, he said he was ‘from lancashire…a lancashire w*nker…’ and I think he was related to someone in the band or crew because all the crew were very protective of him. or maybe some relative of smith - it used to be common to see his sisters and even his mum at gigs. he went seriously nuts during the gig, especially during ‘wings’, leaning over the barrier, his arse wagging like a duck, beckoning lewdly and hollering at some bemused kids at stage-front. fantastically creepy. he did a stage invasion too, to much applause. there was a real air of malevolance at this gig, which always works well for the fall in terms of creative tension on-stage and heightened expectation off-stage. mark tried to smash a profferred whiskey bottle out of the hands of some idiot using his mic at one point. one thing I noticed was that elena couldn’t wait to get off stage and her usual eye contact and friendly wave to the crowd at the end was distinctly absent. I don’t think the band were so impressed by the audience vibe, it was a striking contrast to the atmosphere at the same travellling venue, spiegletent, in cork a couple of months ago.
Thanks for that Alan. I’d forgotten that about the aul lad. I didn’t fit in about the stage invasion, or the tonk sound when Smith hit back the bottle of whiskey raised to him with the mike. The fight at the end though did prove that all was not well, atmosphere wise especially up the front.
I dunno, I loved it. Carry Bag Man and Pharmacist? Does this make it a greatest hits tour? I like the way there’s a mix of heads at Fall gigs these days, not just the beardy 30somethings (hi Donagh!) any more. There were actual youths bopping up the front.
Fantastic Life!
Jim.
Hey, so did I. Did I not mention that? I think they always play two or three from the back catalogue, so every tour is going to have a couple of favourites I guess.
The Fall is like any other cult. If it sticks around long enough there is always plenty of young impressionable types who are more than willing to be sucked into it, and who soon enough start getting fixated by the leader.
not just the beardy 30somethings (hi Donagh!)
Hmmm, at least I can still be called beardy.
By the way, the Fall Online called this review ‘thorough’. Looking back on it, I suppose it is a bit long. Bloody Fall Online
‘Donagh Thoroughgood and the Reviewers’….
yeah but, Donagh, how many cans of Dutch Gold per day are Fall Online worth ??
PS Don’t forget that Mr Pharmacist is another insired cover and not, strictly speaking a Fall song…
$63.80c per day. Around 40 cans of Dutch Gold. All consumed by Mark E. Smith, of course.
Jeez, Donagh, take the compliment when it’s going - ‘thorough’ is a good thing.
It’s also probably the longest review of the Fall that doesn’t mention the number of studio albums, the rotating cast, anyone’s granny, bongoes, or any of the other usual, lazy, paragraph fillers. Well done. You haven’t even used any variant on the word ‘curmudgeon.’
I was thinking of Mr. Pharmacist being a cover when I wrote it, and that you couldn’t strictly call it a Fall song. Actually I was thinking about the absurdity of Sonic Youth doing a cover of M.P, and how they made it sound like a sonic youth version of the original song, which is fairly useless as a homage to the Fall.
On that point check out this cartoon by Jeffrey Lewis, which was done in response to the question “Do you think Mark E Smith is slowly turning into Stephen Hawking (looks-wise, that is)?”
http://drownedinsound.com/images/28571.jpeg
‘$63.80c per day’!! - the only reason he doesn’t sue Fall Online is because of the steady stream of Dutch Gold.
NO! I will never accept a compliment.
Yep, no lazy, paragraph fillers for me. Although I did use the phrase ‘petrified gnome’ in my recent Fall post.
donagh wrote the generic fall review. it will be regurgitated by guardian online for these the last three yrs of mark’s life.
Great gig, loved every moment…… Does anyone know the name of the guy who was d-jaying and visuals supporting the Fall ??????????????
Tone Bee, the guy is called Safi Sniper. He seems to specialise in supporting The Fall around the place. You can see how Smith might like him - he really pisses people off.
Yea, it was a form of audio-visual sadism.