GIG NUMBER SIXTEEN
Who
So yes, back to the stage. There was barbed wire down the front, fairy lights everywhere and just generally a massive feel to it, like it had been set up for a festival headliner. When the Scream finally showed up, they launched into their epileptic-fit-inducing light show with a blinding Swastika Eyes. They may have made us wait an insanely long time, but anything decent enough to make up for such support must be good! For some baffling reason, Nick didn't enjoy it and retreated to the back very early on, a decision I doubt he'd repeat nowadays, understanding the full power of The Scream. The rest of the set was a blur, but the moshpit was lethal and I barely survived. I think we got most of Xtrmntr and that every song sounded great. We also got a few numbers off Screamadelica, of which I only knew Movin' On Up (although I pretended quite convincingly that I'd heard Higher Than The Sun before!) which was enough to make me go and buy it afterwards. For some reason I disliked Screamadelica the first time I heard it, finding it weak compared to opening track Movin' On Up, but this live show helped me to understand its power. Mani was also very much a man of the people, regularly elbowing Bobby off the mic to say thanks! Bobby also came down into the crowd at some point to check that a crowdsurfer hadn't injured himself, but it doesn't seem right that the only person in the crowd acknowledged by Bobby was someone doing something dangerous and inconsiderate... Or, remembering this is Primal Scream, maybe it was in fact very right! A good show, and very much better than at the Leeds festival which randomly made it onto Q Magazine's Top 100 gigs ever.
Mark: 8.5/10
Primal Scream
Support
Richard Fearless D.J.
Where
Wolverhampton Civic Hall
When
18th April 2000
Price
£13.50
Who with
Nick
Position
At the front, in the middle!
Comments
2000 will always remain the year of the festivals but this was most probably the finest gig of the year, although it wasn't without its problems! We got there very early and I was hardly surprised that Primal Scream's soundcheck made the venue shake from the outside. They are, after all, a proper rock band, both louder and better than the unfortunate nu-metal shite that was popular at the time! But a position at the front came with a cost. It meant that we had to hear the fuck-awful Richard Fearless DJ set for a very long time. He was already playing the same two seconds of loud noise (music is most definitely not the word) over and over again before we even entered the venue and this continued almost up to 10pm. I suppose no support band was little surprise due to the awesomeness of the Primal Scream stage, which had been fully assembled before we'd got in, but couldn't they had found something listenable? It was so loud we couldn't make any kind of conversation, which is what people would much rather do before a gig! So now I'll never forgive Death In Vegas, no matter what they're like when they're doing a proper show. Seeing some people dancing and "getting into it" after it had been going for two hours was downright depressing.
