GIG NUMBER ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN
Who
Most people here seemed to be of the slightly older generation and male, indicating that Primal Scream have somehow failed to bridge the cross-generational gap. However, I still wanted to make the most of the evening and the soundcheck was very promising, featuring some awesome guitars suggesting that things would be spot-on. The Scream ambled onstage in a low-key manner with surprise choice Kill All Hippies. It certainly wasn't very forward thinking of them but was a nice nod to their past. The video screen was huge, red and effective but it didn't ignite the crowd. Can't Go Back was next up and started off the irritating over the top strobe lighting. People gradually began to nudge their way past to start a moshpit, seemingly just to annoy me and to try to block my view. It certainly wasn't as crazy as it had been the first time at the Civic back in the day! The extremely welcome Jailbird soon followed a reworked and barely recognisable Miss Lucifer. The video screen was only used for selected tunes when the band had something to show us and, in the case of oldies such as this, they simply turned it off. Bobby seemed infinitely more chilled out than the last time I'd seen him, even politely thanking the Birmingham crowd for the mediocre reception they were receiving. In some ways I longed for the old days when Bobby would have sworn at them for being a shit audience! Mani was cheeky as ever though, in one instance elbowing Bobby off the mic to tell someone off for yawning, asking "are we keeping you up"?! Duffy on keyboards kept a low profile but Bobby gave a shout-out to him for coming from Brum, apparently. Meanwhile, Andrew Innes kept facing us with a slightly awkward confused look on his face, maybe the lights were too stark for him? Last time we could barely see them for all the strobes throughout!
Burning Wheel was played but passed me by. Along with Long Life this was wasted space on their greatest hits album! One of the main downers was that, despite the promising soundcheck, the volume was now too loud, ragged and fuzzy. At one point a violinist was produced for a song from Beautiful Future and Deep Hit Of The Morning Sun surprised me in how poorly it seemed to work live. I admit that I probably wasn't in the mood to mosh which took away from my enjoyment, but it wasn't helped when the crowd were going mad to the wrong tunes, such as the average Suicide Bomb! Exterminator meanwhile featured another cool video screen but again was a bit too complex to work well in the live arena. Shoot Speed/Kill Light however was utterly awesome, as the band pointed their guitars at us as if they were guns ready to take us out! The main set climaxed in impressive fashion with Swastika Eyes leading into Movin' On Up, which was played with an extended ending, but you still couldn't help but feel they are tired of playing this classic. Rocks was definitely a crowd-pleasing way of finishing the main set, starting a moshpit the second everyone heard just the drums. The band left the stage having whipped us into a good mood but decided to let the side down with a couple of unknown songs. Things then picked up for an extended Country Girl, which is nice enough but it doesn't seem right to learn it is their biggest ever hit. Finally, they surprised me by finishing with an insanely intense Accelerator. I made my way towards the exit to ensure I caught the train as they started to bombard us with some crazy noise and strobe lights, which made not bumping into people rather tricky! I suspected that this was the finale and they would not attempt to follow it. In my dreams they would have come back on to play Kowalski and Loaded, the two main omissions of the evening, but they had done a pretty good job of playing their main hits despite having a new album to flog! My ears had been pounded to within an inch of their lives but Primal Scream had just about justified the steep ticket price!
Mark: 8.0/10
Primal Scream
Where
Birmingham Academy
When
4th December 2008
Price
£22.50
Who with
No-one
Position
Towards the front
Comments
I usually feel strongly compelled to go to shows for one reason or another. However this time around I was looking to fill up my diary with a few interesting nights out and Primal Scream were the best thing on offer. As much as I may like them I'd never felt the urge to see them since back in the heady days of 2000 and the Xtrmntr tour and, considering they had defied expectations for a band of their age and continued to churn out good material, a revisit was definitely overdue. I find it hard to swallow that I was only seventeen years old the last time I saw Primal Scream as the penultimate act of the glorious V2000/Leeds 2000 week as it still seems fresh in my mind! I resolved to memorise their newer material but never quite got round to it, learning bits and pieces of the Beautiful Future album but almost forgetting entirely about the existence of Riot City Blues! Indeed, my main concern was having to wake up so early for work the next day, which perhaps isn't in the spirit of the NME Rock & Roll "Riot" Tour. I'd expected promising support but in a poor year for new music there was just the usual non-entities so I decided to turn up late just in time to get a good position for the Scream. I was shocked by how impressive the Christmas lights in Birmingham looked and at the time also excited by the prospect of travelling to Sussex to visit the pub in Macca's Wonderful Christmas Time video, a plan which sadly never came to fruition due to the insane distance involved. I also heard The Kinks greatest hits on the way in and was on a high to discover just what a good band they were. I was late but it was no problem as the show was far from sold out, possibly due to the tickets being so expensive, and there was no sign whatsoever to indicate that this was an NME tour. There were some cool t-shirts such as the classic Prml Scrm Mthr Fckr and ones saying God Save Our Scream and some good music was played while I was waiting, such as She Comes In Colors by Love and an alternate version of 'Til I Die by The Beach Boys. This certainly was far better than the support offered by Richard Fearless back in 2000.
Who
Kill All Hippies
Can't Go Back
Miss Lucifer
Suicide Sally & Johnny Guitar
Jailbird
Burning Wheel
Beautiful Future
Uptown
Deep Hit Of Morning Sun
Suicide Bomb
City
Exterminator
Shoot Speed/Kill Light
Swastika Eyes
Movin' On Up
Rocks
Necro Hex Blues
(a new song)
Country Girl
Accelerator
n.b. This setlist was from another gig, but it's either correct or similar
