well, here we go again... another great gwai show in a venue that puts our
poor uk venues to shame.
the ab is a fantastic venue, great beer for those who partake - the
spiritual home of the mighty stella and also for us tea totallers a fine
fruitmix! the ab club is a great smaller room, home to the "take me
somewhere nice" film showing and also to a superb set from the mighty part
chimp later in the evening. the larger room would be comparable to
gloucester arts centre for those who know it, in terms of shape if not capacity.
the film was a hoot from start to finish. it basically involved the 5
members talking and generally being as offensive as possible about each
other. the highlight for me has got to be barry talking about john's guitar playing
in earlier days and referring to it as "a monkey being raped by a robot!"
some fine live footage too, a lot of which seemed to be from the rothesay
show a couple of years ago.
then to the main hall for kling klang. another good set from them - were
they a member down from when i saw them in northampton?
the audience seemed a little bemused by the set but warmed to them by the
end. i do love the headbanging over the keyboards...
then to the 'gwai... another varied set based around the new album but good
to see a variation of older tunes too.
'ex-cowboy' was amazing as was 'fear satan'. it still sounds just as fresh now
as it did the first time i ever heard it live, many gigs ago. must have the
best build up / intro of any song ever played.
the sound did seem to suffer from a lot of "noise" through what was an
impressive pa stack. one of stuart's amps packed up part way through, which
didn't help and this may have lead to 'ratts of the capital' not sounding as
fierce as previous outings. the distortion build up didn't appear to happen
- when he stamped on the pedals nothing seemed to change... but hey i'm
being picky !
funny of the night - after '2 rights..', dominic walked off stage, seeming to
forget that 'helicon 1' was still to come. after much laughter from the rest
of the band and cheers from the crowd he returned!
the encores were great - an awesome 'i know you are but what am i?', quickly
becoming one of the highpoints of the show, and a blistering 'you don't know
jesus'. no big noise finish, which from my ears point of view and for sake of
variation, made a nice change.
then back upstairs for part chimp, who were awesome. best i've seen them
play and the new material is great. thank god for ear plugs. top bunch of
guys as well. go and buy the new album which john from mogwai has done a
fine production job on, as well as doing the live sound for them straight
after playing. dedication to the cause or what!
to round off an evening with mogwai we were treated to stuart and john
spinning a few choice cuts on the wheels of steel.
another fine evening. any one who can get to a show at the ab it comes with
a 5-star recommendation. big shouts to all who made it possible and to rob for being a
top jet set gigging comrade!
