arab strap supporting

review, by jason graham

colchester and it's arts centre pretty much suck but stuart and dominic seemed to like it. as far gigs go this was the highlight of the year for tut arts centre. highlight of the poncily named "horses head... the sound of the new underground, a short season of post modern, art-rock types...". such pomp doesn't do justice to the intelligence of mogwai's sound.

opening on this leg of the tour was arab strap. tonight they played a real crowd pleasing set. aiden seemed pissed off but fully in control. below him mogwai slumped down and lay in front of the stage and appeared to be doing their best to put ageing strap off. partway through the set stuart crawled under the stage and popped his head out and went peakaboo. for two thirds of the set they played completely new material. the rockier stuff sounded amazing, however the slower ones didn't benefit from the live environment however if they turn up on record i have no doubt that they'll sound far superior. the rockier tracks sound like nothing on the album but if you heard the peel session you should have a good idea how it sounded. the first recognisable song they played was the clearing. despite lacking the distinctive "secret receipe" drum sound it was still tasty. it then immediately became kate moss which sounded exactly how it does in record. tonight it fitted in perfectly. the rocky version of little girls was also amazing and easily bettered the album version. instead of singing aiden pulled out his harmonica and pulled off a blow job. he would have used a megaphone if the fucker had worked. for a closer was tonights version of first big weekend. unfortunately what was said couldn't be heard. he then hopped off stage to get some audience participation going. the pussy colchester crowd wimped out which i'm sure resulted in insults. good set although the amount of new, previously unheard stuff was a bit hard to swallow.

mogwai opened again with summer (priority version). i'm a miserable tit and prefer the original for the heartstopping echo during its climax. new paths followed and my heart began beating much faster. the addition of brendan means that angels versus aliens is made just that bit easier. even stuart grabbed some sticks and joined in. tonight felt a bit experimental with a couple of lengthy workouts. the second of which (and penultimate song played) practically made my heart stop. however stereo dee jump started it going again. stereo dee is fast becoming mogwai song #1 for me. live stereo dee potentially holds the most amazing climax within its grasp and tonight it surpassed my expectations. as stuart played battle of the planets samples through his guitar via his dictaphone i knew something special was happening. the thunderous climax resulted in bombardment upon bombardment of feedback as dominic smashed away at the drums and john and brendan kicked guitars around the stage. the old church that is the arts centre felt as if it would slide down north hill. when the amps were finally switched off it was hard to readjust, such powerful forces must not fall into the hands of evil. evil such as the scumbag bouncer who threw us out. cocksmoker.