GIG NUMBER FIFTY-NINE
Who
But shock shock horror horror shock shock horror, Space were really good, far better than they had any right to be!! I may not quite had shouted myself hoarse for their supernatural force, but everyone there realised that the general assessment that Space are trapped in mediocrity is quite unfair and, against all expectations, this night out was worth it solely for the music! I'd researched their usual setlists beforehand and deduced that they'd probably play two or so of the big four: Female Of The Species, Avenging Angels, Neighbourhood and Me And You Versus The World. Say what you like about the rest of their catalogue, but those are four fantastic tunes, especially Neighbourhood! The second I heard the introduction to Neighbourhood I knew that I hadn't wasted my time coming here. After all these years I still remembered who lived in every house, and suddenly I was very happy. Female Of The Species was dispatched later and, barring a few sound problems, it was excellent. Me And You Versus The World ended the main set and by now I was delighted, especially with the sped-up classic spoken bit in the middle. I never expected they'd do them all in a million years, but the encore finished with an electric Avenging Angels! Wow! 30 minutes before the curfew and Space had already delivered all their classics. They left the stage and the crowd left the venue, clearly not caring if there was a further encore as we'd already got all that really mattered!!
And that wasn't all either. Dark Clouds completed the set of singles from Spiders. In a truly bizarre juxtaposition, the instruments were totally reworked and it sounded like they were playing Dark Clouds to the tune of Teenage Kicks! This was surreal as hell, and worth the effort of coming out alone! Also, the set opened with the memorable Mr Psycho, Spiders was delivered in an excellent acoustic moment and Money was good, despite its awfulness on record. New songs were mixed. Quite a lot of them were the so-so tunes I'd expected, but some were fantastic. Zombies was insanely catchy, another one sounded painfully familiar, either being a rip-off, cover version or just damn good, and a few others passed the time very nicely (even though a moshpit never got going). Space had a nice banner of their name behind them, and Tommy's stage stare and grin really kept your attention, as did his nice Mars Attacks t-shirt. Also, the keyboardist had a bizarre instrument that seemed to be a cross between a mouth organ and a hand-held keyboard: any ideas? Minor omissions were Begin Again and The Ballad Of Tom Jones but, with so many of their hits delivered, it would be insane to complain about this. With astonishingly low expectations beforehand I suppose that, in the end, dark clouds did drift away to reveal the sunshine: and the exam went fine too! I now have a lot more respect for Space: their status as a genuinely important act in the history of my musical evolution restored, and I was surprised to be able to report that this gig was worth it on musical merit alone! Just never trust a soul on planet Earth.
Mark: 8.0/10
Space
Where
Manchester Hop And Grape
When
24th March 2004
Price
£8.00
Who with
Matt, Sean
Position
In the middle
Comments
It seems hard for me to believe, but I never got to see Space at the time and thought I never would. Observing the close proximity of this gig with my 21st birthday however, I decided it would be a fantastic opportunity to get everyone together on a unique, interesting and, most importantly, universal night out. £8 for a band who wrote a few top tunes isn't a bad deal and, even if they only played one or two of them, things would be OK on the band front, making it primarily a social event with a few classic hits thrown in for good measure. So I got my ticket months in advance, thinking it paranoid to worry about others not coming along, it being my birthday and all, a time when you really should expect everyone to make a little effort. But my faith was misplaced as almost everyone skanked me, and with absolutely no valid reasons. Thus I was left with the realisation that I didn't really want to see Space that much at all, having a big exam the next day that I really needed to revise for. My hope then was that the gig had sold out so I could sell my ticket with no loss and forget all about this sorry mess. But of course it hadn't, so me and my two mates who hadn't skanked went inside. We didn't even bother seeing the support band and stayed around the bar getting tipsy, before wearily climbing the two flights of stairs to see Space almost certainly being quite mediocre.
