GIG NUMBER ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FOUR
Who
It had been a boring day and I'd been waiting for weeks for the telephone to ring about a job. Typically I was phoned the second I left the house to go out and I had to get off the train at wonderful Wolverhampton to return the call. Although it was nice to be called, this drove my attention away from the show a bit as we headed into a newly discovered Birmingham Wetherspoons for tea. The curry I had was nice enough but is definitely the wrong choice for before a gig and was served to us so fast we arrived at the Academy at ten minutes after seven to encounter a long queue. The bouncers had randomly decided to delay doors opening by ten minutes but deserve some credit for getting the queue to move quickly and not messing around with searches, although if any show justifies body searches it is for a band from Brixton, the most violent place in the world! This was the first time I learned that the concert had been rescheduled and we were all split into two queues depending on the dates on our tickets but still got inside fast. We headed in downstairs and to the left, the Academy being empty when we got in despite the huge queue ahead of us! We contemplated going up to the balcony but they had for some reason left it closed for the first twenty minutes, rewarding the people who'd arrived late. It wouldn't have been worth it anyway as random obstructions were placed stopping you standing at the back. We were better off downstairs than standing stage left or right upstairs but it would be nice one day to see a show from above with no large heads in the way! The gig was a sell-out so the venue did fill up and it was clear from the set-up that we would be seeing a support band. I'd neglected to check out who it would be and I had trouble finding their name afterwards but eventually learned that it was Master Shortie, a British rapper who bounded onstage after his band had kicked things off. It certainly was the worst possible start, a cover version of Prince Charming by Adam And The Ants with unnecessary rap elements, and shameless shout-outs for Basement Jaxx and to get the crowd going before he'd even done anything to earn a cheer!
The absolute low-point was when the keyboardist presumably just pressed "play" and we heard segments of Smells Like Teen Spirit while Master Shortie tried to persuade us to chant "Birmingham!" over the top of it. It was a dire combination of shamelessly cashing in on someone else's material, the criminal modern act of thinking that rapping/shouting over a good song can do anything but ruin it and name-checking the worst city in the known universe. I think MC Hammer is one of the few artists to turn a good song into something different and worthwhile by rap, it's a shame that so many others have tried and failed to do the same. He also gave an interesting shout-out asking which decade everyone was born in, with the 90's coming out on top surprisingly. But it was a shame about all the annoying elements, such as endless attempts to get the crowd to join in which support acts should be banned from, and the countless rap stereotypes leading to an utter lack of originality, even having a song called Dance Like A White Boy. The real shame being that it wasn't all bad, indeed at times he showed promise, but that promise can only lead to success if he sold out even more and started making glossy soulless records. After Master Shortie finished the lights were randomly turned up to full blast, causing the room to heat up unbearably, leaving us all blinking and uncomfortable and contributing to global warming. The funny thing is that when you see a band in Wolverhampton these problems rarely arise, and I sometimes swear that Birmingham and its people are going out of their way to be shit just to annoy me. I always emphasise all the bad elements of shows and that's partly because these pages are designed to be a complete, no holds barred record of the event for my future reference and also because I am obsessed with the idea of perfection. I want to analyse everything that stopped every show I go to from being perfect, even though most of the time there's very little I can do to prevent the issues. I also think it's far more useful than a blindly fawning account of a show with no criticism whatsoever. Part of me wonders if I'd enjoy things more if I did go crazy and try to "lose myself" in shit support bands but the fact is that after seeing so many awesome live shows my perspective is changed forever and I just cannot blindly accept mediocrity or shite!
My brother defied a golden rule of gig going, namely not to go to the toilet after the support band and risk losing your place in the crowd and ruining the whole show. However he made it back in and at 9pm after the usual anonymous DJing Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This started up and the crowd cheered, glad to hear something decent at last. Five seconds in though it was cut out and the lights went down for the arrival of Basement Jaxx. It was a punctual 9pm start to a fairly indifferent intro tape. The large video screen was put to full use here, although the one square that was slightly less bright distracted us from the spectacle a bit! Throughout the show there'd be long bits without video, either the band were choosing to use it sparingly or they were facing some technical issues. The opener was Good Luck and it was a sensible if slightly backwards choice. I cannot find a setlist, which makes writing this review more difficult, but a reasonable selection of guest vocalists kept appearing. There were two large interchangeable lady singers who were onstage most of the time plus a stunning Rihanna look-alike and a male rapper who popped up a couple of times. There were endless costume changes which did no harm or good except making you wonder whether it was a new person or just a new outfit! Best costume of the evening was a guy in a black and white minimalist skeleton suit who sang an otherwise unmemorable new song. I'd been hoping they'd keep new material to a minimum seeing as the new album wasn't out yet but they just couldn't resist a barrage of newbies. After another anonymous new tune passed me by they declared it was going to be their next single, which could be a nail in the coffin for the future of the Jaxx as a relevant act. As I was completely sober (and going to a show with my brother restricted my fun) I probably was hypercritical but I spent large parts of the set being annoyed by countless things that could have been better. The Academy sound system and the general shiteness of the venue was probably the biggest downer of the night with many vocals, especially on Oh My Gosh, being drowned out by the beats. Also the freak show of tall heads in front blocked much of my view of the stage and there was an endless barrage of selfish people pushing past.
The atmosphere was more charged than usual due to it being St George's day which just a few years ago would pass by unnoticed and that certainly had made the pub beforehand busier too despite it being a Thursday night. A few morons were throwing glasses around and some of the moshing around me made me fear for the safety of my glasses but I survived unscathed. Anyway, back to the specifics of the set, Red Alert was an early highlight and one of the few flawless moments whereas Jus 1 Kiss was mostly pre-recorded and barely required the band to be present. A slow version of Romeo was screechy and loud whereas Plug It In went down nicely. Jump N' Shout was performed in a condensed form too, with a guy wearing a cape with half a Union Jack (wrong flag for St Georges day!) and half of what was either the Jamaican or an African flag. My main thought was that Basement Jaxx are a perfect outdoors festival band, and I kicked myself when they announced a date at the Civic after this one! They deserve a lot of credit for playing all the songs that you would demand from them and I just can't figure out how they found time for this and also to bore us rigid with an endless free form jazz style segment towards the end. When the guest vocalists left the stage there just wasn't enough visual stimulation to keep you interested, which is a key difference between Basement Jaxx and dance bands like Air who require less gimmicks to entertain. The two actual members of the band spent most of the show at the back but I think one of them came out for some lead vocals at times. As usual I was irked by the band shouting out for Birmingham, with one of the singers announcing this was the third date and biggest city so far hence they expected us to be the loudest. I can only hope that it was an insincere attempt to get the crowd going as everyone knows the larger the city the worse the audience, even though Birmingham was as loud as ever, maybe even a quarter as good as a Civic crowd! Anyway, the aforementioned "free form jazz" section was perhaps just a breather for the band and crowd as it was then followed by the obvious highlight of the evening! I'd been so even-mindedly listening to Basement Jaxx's catalogue that I'd practically forgotten just how brilliant Where's Your Head At? was and how it shines so much brighter than their other songs. I guess I'd just heard it too often and it had ceased to hold any wonder for me, but it worked on this night!
However, we'd still decided beforehand that if the band ran late and we risked missing our train that Where's Your Head At? was probably the only song worth staying over for. Fortunately we didn't encounter this problem as it was played at the end of the main set and was utterly storming, even featuring the dancing gorillas I remembered fondly from Glastonbury 2005 on TV! They'd surpassed themselves and it was gratifying to see their most famous hit given the biggest fanfare. Basement Jaxx left the stage before returning to a strong encore. The guitar intro of Rendez-Vu was the most musically memorable moment of the evening and it was obvious that the crowd hadn't forgotten this song in the mists of time. Bingo Bango wasn't as strong but was a worthwhile closer and proceedings had nicely finished well before 11pm. Thanks to the unnecessary lighting after the support band the venue had become insanely hot and I was glad to step outside and grab a Coke. We easily caught the last train back and noticed an abundance of AC/DC t-shirts. I learned after that they'd played the N.E.C. but I think it's fair to say that we'd had the better evening. I won't repeat the endless list of niggles and complaints that took away my enjoyment of the show, as I think I've given them enough of an airing above! This evening was evidence that learning all of the songs isn't always enough to guarantee musical ecstasy and perhaps the only way to contend with the problems of the evening is just to resolutely avoid Birmingham Academy at all costs. This venue and city has the potential to take the soul out of any performance, even dragging down greats like Super Furry Animals, and there's definitely something to be said for the extravagant approach of picking out a weekend show from a tour and travelling to a faraway city! Basement Jaxx though could hardly be blamed for most of the annoyances of the night, their worst crime being not playing Cish Cash. This tour was pretty big and I'm guessing it was a warm-up for the festival circuit rather than a low-key preview of the album followed by an arena tour in the winter. I think this concert earns a fairly lofty 8/10, but only by the skin of its teeth! I'm very glad to have seen Basement Jaxx but I do wish I'd done it in better surroundings!
Mark: 8.0/10
Basement Jaxx
Support
Master Shortie
Where
Birmingham Academy
When
23rd April 2009
Price
£19.57
Who with
Alex
Position
In the middle
Comments
I'd never got round to seeing Basement Jaxx live despite always being interested and knowing that they would put on a good show. This was probably down to their random popularity, on one hand headlining Glastonbury 2005, releasing mediocrity such as Jump N' Shout and playing large arena tours, on the other having great singles such as Jus 1 Kiss and Plug It In somehow failing to dent the top twenty. Their recent success has been limited, with Crazy Itch Radio failing due to a lack of any killer hits and Kish Kash randomly not succeeding despite the (sort of) title track being the greatest song that Basement Jaxx will ever record! On the other hand, The Singles collection was hugely successful, despite the nerve of releasing it after just three albums and somehow failing to put Cish Cash on it. I guess it all comes down to the Jaxx having enough appeal to the moronic elements of the masses to be subject to such random peaks and troughs, but I find their shifting popularity to be a fascinating thing. Perhaps the barely relevant act of Felix DJing at Reading 2006 and introducing me to Bucovina by Shantel, one of the greatest live moments of my life, had affected me more than I'd realised and been the catalyst which made me finally see them. Plus I guess their downsizing to normal-sized venues helped too! I'd purchased tickets far in advance for the random price of £19.57 then set about learning their back catalogue in full. As I had a crazy amount of time on my hands thanks to this recession I succeeded admirably, becoming familiar with just about everything after countless listens. I also had been hearing good reports from their shows in Australia and didn't have to worry about waking up early the next day so the build-up had been good, my main concern being a random ringing in my ears I couldn't shake which seems to have subsided now. I think it would be cruel to be punished for my love of great live music by going deaf, and especially so when I hadn't been listening to any loud music before my ear randomly started playing up anyway!
