We’re back on a (yeah yeah) industrial estate in Salford for the 2nd time in the past week on a particularly rain-lashed mid week night. Hotline TNT are here, all the way from New York City and something tells me I’m into something good. They’re a few albums in but their new one ‘Raspberry Moon’ grabbed my attention. It is billed as ‘New American Shoegaze’ but what I’m hearing is more aligned to the grungey but sunnyside-up sounds that were adjacent in the imperial 89-92 era – the likes of Teenage Fanclub, Dinosaur JR… think Swervedriver rather than Slowdive. Big guitar sounds, big songs.
Ver’ Hotline are hard gigging band who have earned their stripes around the US and beyond, and as soon as they strike up their set it shows. Unlike some current bands in their ‘milieu’ they aren’t afraid to crank it up and let rip. There’s a lot to be said for confidence and a bit of swagger, you can feel the relief – nobody’s going to have a wobble if they break a string or fluff a note – they’re going for it. There’s no great experimentation going on, but that’s fine because they’ve got some great songs, a deft way with a build up, a drummer who can swing from metronomic to Who-esque fills and a load of bounce. Not that this is meat & taters grunge rock either, underneath the energetic fireworks there is a precision and craft and they have a way with melody – check ‘Lawnmower’ or ‘Dance the Night Away’ off the the new LP you’ll see what I mean.
Such is the confidence and ease with which they entertain us I start to wonder if they’re one of those bands that might go past the 2 hour mark and ‘do a Yo La Tengo’ – but in fact it’s a short, sharp set and after 45 mins they’re off – quick blast through 2 encores and away. Perfectly pitched, heart-warming and downright fun.
Mark E Smith probably would not approve of a ‘tribute act’ to The Fall and so the wryly named Look Back Bores embrace that contradiction head on and just get on with the important business of creating an opportunity for fans to enjoy an unabashed celebration of the group.
Aatma, formerly the Kraak Gallery, is a makeshift but welcoming venue tucked away off Stevenson Square amid the now sprawling Northern Quarter. The venue is filling up as Look Back Bores file on stage to a soundtrack of ‘that time Mark E Smith read the football scores’ which is a nice touch. It turns out LBB have played here several times and this is becoming a regular thing – so I’ve some catching up to do.
The group (I don’t know any names sorry) appear to be a mixed age combo who clearly know this music inside out – drummer, two guitars, bass, keyboards and their masterstroke is a very simple but genius approach to the tricky business of filling the the enormous shoes of the fallen frontman. They have realised it is a job for two.
There is a younger lad with loads of attitude who has nailed down the M.E.S snarl and if he donned a charity shop jumper could pass for 1970s Mark – and he’s joined by a tall geezer who doubles up on synths, and delivers the words in a more punk-poet style, spitting the lyrics more like Jason Williamson from Sleaford Mods – they alternate between taking it in turns to lead songs or doubling up for maximum effect (a lot of Fall songs have multiple vocals of course). It works a treat, it means nobody is the absolute focal point, it’s not an impersonation it’s about putting the music across with the required amount of welly and – at times you marvel at the feat of remembering all those lyrics. As they swing into a blistering ‘Pay Yr Rates’ it is clear we are in safe hands.
The musicians are uniformly excellent, not slavishly recreating the records as this isn’t some ‘sealed knot’ re-enactment of the (post)Punk Wars – but they have the right mix of raw power and economy that Fall sound requires while also reminding us the songs are not quite as simple and straightforward as they might seem.
The set list is all about the element of surprise and it turns out, they can play anything by The Fall so we could go anywhere in the discography. There is no such thing as ‘The Best of The Fall’ and diehard fans won’t ever agree on a perfect set. Of course, in their day The Fall would never pander to fans and in later years would seldom dip into their vast catalogue. LBB wisely try and cover lots of eras and pick from as early as ‘Container Drivers’, they play imperial phase Fall like ‘Kicker Conspiracy’ and ‘What You Need’, they play the Pop Fall like ‘Free Range’ and ‘Cruisers Creek’ but also go up to later Fall years with songs like ‘Victrola Time’ (from the final Fall LP) and ‘Blindness’ which are as much fan favourites as the classical stuff.
They deliver those later songs with a particular ferocity, especially ‘Facebook Troll’ which reminds me of the final Fall line-up, those battle hardened musicians that Mark Smith stuck with for an unusually long time toward the end of his life. If The Fall had anthems they are probably ‘Totally Wired’ and ‘Big New Prinz’ both of which get performed with a now thoroughly bouncing audience providing the singalongs.
Calling them a tribute band does LBB as disservice – this is more like a counter-factual Fall that never existed. The Fall would never have done such a long, crowd-pleasing set as this and LBB make no attempt to pass this off as being anything like what a Fall gig would be like – indeed if they did they’d go on 90 mins late, the singers would mess with the musicians amps, veer off the script and then walk off half way through. It is what it is, a chance to just appreciate this astonishing music and let these songs live and breathe again in the damp, Manchester night.
As I said at the start, Mark Smith would probably hate it but then again, he’d just as likely probably offer the musicians a job playing in a future line-up of The Fall.
Field Music are over 20 years into their career now – but with the telescoping of Pop Time that is about the equivalent of 6 months in the hurtling white heat of Beatle 60s or Bowie 70s. They’re 9 albums in which, aside from spin-offs and solo projects is a fairly modest output – there is serious quality control here (compared to those tedious neo-psych bands who release 9 albums before they’ve had breakfast) and each new record is clearly thought out and laboured over with obvious love.
Their latest one ‘Limits of Language’ did not immediately grab me on first listen – the sonic shtick on this one is adding synth textures, occasionally jarring sounds and the songs seemed to be formless grooves on which to showcase the lyrical content above hooks, melody and harmony. It’s the focus of the set tonight but the diehard fans around me have clearly immersed themselves in it and greet the new songs with gusto (“here’s one from our new LP” —“yessss!”). Sure enough there are several songs tonight which come to life on stage and reveal themselves properly. ‘Guardian of Sleep’ for instance evokes XTC circa ‘The Big Express’ – that gnarly, synth-heavy mid-period release – and it clicks – the is Field Music’s gnarly, synth-heavy mid period release too and maybe I’ll be calling it a classic in 10 years time.
Field Music have always been a brilliant, if low-key live band but for all the self-deprecating humour, prosaic asides and lyrics about shopping centres and cafes- when they get down to playing, they care and they mean it. The Brewis brothers take it in turn to front the band and take the drum stool – and the long-time touring band Andrew, Kev and Liz provide simpatico backing and the all-important vocal harmonies. It’s not too much of a stretch to compare the Brewis brothers to Becker and Fagan from Steely Dan or the likes of 10CC – filtered through Sunderland – they have a similar vocal tone and musical precision. Field Music have a deft way of playing like a bunch of massive musos without the slightest hint of flash or wankery – any solo or bit of meandering is all in service of the song.
The encore starts without the band leaving the stage (an increasingly common occurrence at gigs which I am very much in favour of) – and as the band say, as requests are called out, they never had any hits – so they go with ‘The Noisy Days are Over’ and ‘..A New Thing’ which are close enough for this very appreciative crowd (the band seem visibly taken aback by Manchester tonight). So just another night in the long career of Field Music – one to file in the gigography – time to go back to that under-rated 9th LP…
