GIG NUMBER ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE
Who
I spent the week beforehand listening to their greatest hits plus the new album, which was a slightly redundant exercise as I knew the songs so well. I was also chuffed to figure out how to play songs in track order on my MP3 player! I left work early, popped into the chip shop, then jumped on the crazily busy train to Manchester, getting a seat eventually. It was rather embarrassing to get slightly lost walking to the hotel, reminding me I shouldn't overestimate my knowledge of Manchester after four years away! I checked in and got ready for the show at a fairly relaxed pace before heading out to the Ritz. Doors had opened at 7pm and I arrived sometime before 8pm, storming past the touts and resisting a nostalgic walk around to head straight to the front. I certainly don't make life easy for myself by insisting on being at the front for SFA. The fact is fourteen consecutive shows at the front for a band is an awesome record and I'd feel guilty to break it, as much as I often wish I was in the moshpit! The concession I've made though, both due to my ageing and how much later I seem to arrive, is standing further to one side, and again I stood a bit to the left of Gruff. Sadly this is also in front of the speakers, which doesn't offer the best sonic experience, but what can I say? I have a world record to break here! I'm told the Ritz used to be nice but now it's a crumbling symbol of old Manchester, with the cool star-shaped lighting rig on the ceiling and lights around the balcony barely concealing how dated the decor is.
The support was already on stage and she was a Welsh singer with a keyboard who I didn't pay sufficient attention to. Towards the end she played a Welsh language song and the final number was very catchy. The band then left the stage so promptly you could only call it rudeness, with no thank you's despite a perfectly civil reception from the crowd. This was reminiscent of the time I saw Nigel from Dodgy supporting someone, as if she'd bothered to tell us who she was earlier I'd had paid much more attention! Perhaps she announced herself at the start of the gig before I arrived, but I didn't realise it was actually Cate Le Bon of Neon Neon and burgeoning solo fame until she said so at the very end. Coupled with the fact that her guitarist apparently was Richard James from Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, they'd certainly have grabbed much more of my attention if I'd had known this beforehand! Still, it was certainly alright and she can only get better as she writes more songs, but I felt as if the band were in disguise. Cate's hair colour and build had changed and I couldn't recognise Richard at all! One point the support had clarified though is that the Ritz is still one of the best music venues in Manchester. The sound was loud and atmosphere good so the fact the building is a bit scummy is irrelevant if you're not going clubbing there. It also reminded me of my last gig as a resident of Manchester watching British Sea Power playing this very same room in 2005.
The wait for SFA to come on was surprisingly dull. After seeing a band so many times an element of the routine inevitably sets in and, as a seasoned gig-goer, I understand SFA themselves can be slow to warm up, but the band have sufficient appeal to "get me into it" no matter what my mood may be beforehand. I could have made plans to meet people at the show or afterwards but considering the rush from work there simply was no time, and other people could only interfere with my quest to stand at the front and pay attention to the songs. I firmly had to stand my ground to avoid being banished to the periphery and the bottom line is that the speakers were so loud I couldn't have heard a word any potential friend would be saying to me anyway! A rush of excitement did build though as the quality of pre-band music suddenly increased, including a bizarre and wonderful techno song built upon Martin Sheen quotes from Apocalypse Now followed by a cover of Tomorrow Never Knows which showed a conventional pop song was underneath all those weird noises. Next up was Furryvision ™, which disappointingly quite a few people didn't realise was the intro track! My main issue in SFA shows is lack of variety so the start was fantastic. Obviously my brain expected The Placid Casual next up but I was reasonably pleased with the choice of Zoom!, mainly because it was a much more interesting offering than Slow Life would have been! Zoom! also fits in nicely with the heavy guitars that define SFA's current approach and the sound was crazily loud and distorted, although I don't know if this was teething problems or simply due to standing in front of the speakers! The lights were mad and the false ending was inspiring, and this strong and long opener was brilliantly followed by the short and sharp Do Or Die!
The over-played but enjoyable (Drawing) Rings Around The World then led into the always welcome Golden Retriever dedicated to the bands favourite animal. Gruff had shaved his beard but Bunf's continued to grow longer and SFA had definitely got off to a flying start. This continued with the warmly welcomed return of Hometown Unicorn, subtly altered over time to show a thread of continuity from the beginnings of SFA to the present almost Pink Floydesque barrage of long guitar solos. Cian sang Mt. from his position at the back and I suppose an offering from the latest album was due and this was as good a choice as any. It's a nice little stomper but lyrically is perhaps just too simplistic and silly. This great start then gave way to new album meanderings and predictable choices. Moped Eyes was introduced as a terrible condition but if we have to stand through the new songs I'd much rather had heard Inconvenience or Helium Hearts. I shouldn't complain too much as this was the only track that most would have considered a low point and the next offering, as much as it makes me groan, was a massive crowd pleaser. I cheered when SFA announced the next one was about Trams but was disappointed when, after a quick exchange with Bunf, Gruff announced it was actually about Demons. I hoped this had finally been dropped for good but sadly it has made its way back into the set, taking up space that could have been filled with never-played cuts such as Ysbeidiau Heulog or Frisbee, or the infinitely more welcome Play It Cool. It's hard to blame the band for this though, as the fault lies on those who enjoy Demons so much, and I sometimes wonder if I'm the only fan who's sick to death of it, still maintaining my belief that Down A Different River would have made a far stronger single! As far as Demons goes though it was more interesting than usual, as such a loud cheer greeted the opening line that Gruff said "thank you very much" and cut it off. I just wish they'd left it at that hilarious tease!
If You Don't Want Me To Destroy You has been back in the set for a while and unlike Demons I never get bored of hearing it. Nevertheless, it's hardly an essential song so I must reiterate my plea for the band to mix it up a bit more, especially after such a promising start! Inaugural Trams was then played and is the only Dark Days/Light Years tune that would be welcomed in the setlist forever more as it's just so damned good. Gruff held up the picture of Nick from Franz Ferdinand to the mic again for the German interlude and there was a massive focus on signs throughout the show. This trick is simple but delightful, with selections including "applause", "woah!" and "danke" plus some new ones I can't recall. The Very Best Of Neil Diamond is a strange beast. It should sit alongside Moped Eyes as distinctly unnecessary but it works so well. Gruff sat down with a strange guitar and the accompaniment of blinding strobe lights and ear-shredding noise coupled with the lack of a video screen made this the closest relation to the glory shows of 1999, plus a gentle reminder that the band are now better than their 1999 selves in a lot of ways. I can say similar things about White Socks/Flip Flops, which is probably the most crowd-pleasing Bunf offering an SFA set can provide. The Manchester audience were much better than their London counterparts and undoubtedly an increased familiarity with the new record was a great help too. Blerwytirhwng? was introduced as a very old song from the 1930s and it was as stunning as last time, even if many people didn't seem to realise what it was.
The band then left the stage before returning to Slow Life. Its movement to the middle was a trick they've done previously and it's definitely the best way of handling this monster of a track. By now the crowds had warmed up and were much more into it plus it was a small concession to those thick enough to think all bands should pretend to leave the stage just to come back on and play more songs. Due to where I was standing I could barely see Daf or Cian so I'm glad that Cian stood up to play guitar for a while here as Gruff sat down for the second verse and, despite the lack of the Power Rangers helmet, this was Slow Life near its best. Juxtapozed With U is always welcome but rarely surprising whereas Hello Sunshine was made more interesting thanks to several comic pauses by the band to enhance our appreciation of it. Earth of course was as silly as ever and the crowd participation request of waggling our hands by our ears is so dumb that it never goes down as well as simpler requests such as "go low" or a Mexican wave. It did encourage the first of several crowdsurfers though which was an unusual sight but a good reflection that the crowd were up for it, even if Earth was the strangest moment to choose! There weren't any crowdsurfers in London due to the concrete floor, and it was interesting to see them being given a talking to then being released back into the crowd through an opening barrier just to my left. They're still selfish tossers though, but when it doesn't affect me it's not so bad!
Next up was Neo Consumer, shockingly the only representative from Hey Venus! tonight. In fact nearly all of SFA's history had been chronicled by tonight's setlist, the only periods missing being Mwng and Ice Hockey Hair. The lack of Hey Venus! tracks was cruel though, as it had been a good and successful album so I wonder why SFA would want to avoid it in favour of the same old tracks? Crazy Naked Girls will never live up to Night Vision as the pre-MDGAF song but it had a damned good go, rocking long and hard with Gruff holding up the "woah" signs at the correct points. I then expected Pric but was relieved that they skipped over it yet disappointed that this heralded a fairly early end to the show. The Man Don't Give A Fuck then retained its ever-present record and was delivered in its most perfectly concise form, with a flurry of crowdsurfers and the band rubbing their guitars together at the end a la Receptacle For The Respectable. I guess this is the moment when I most wished I was in the moshpit, an experience my being at the front often prevents, and I'd still be utterly furious if the band ever dared to drop this classic. Keep The Cosmic Trigger Happy was once again the finale and as lovely as it is the band should be more original! The main innovation was Gruff's waving of a sign saying "resist phoney encores", which nicely pre-empted the inevitable boos from ignorant fans when they left the stage. Now The Man Don't Give A Fuck is no longer a 30-minute noise epic fans are starting to expect encores and I'm still totally with the band on this point, but they still could have played a little longer and more originally before the finale.
I'm sure I keep repeating myself in each SFA review but as the same issues arise I need to repeat the same comments! The set had been fairly similar to last time. Hometown Unicorn, Zoom!, Do Or Die and Furryvision ™ had been welcome additions and the omission of Pric was a bonus. In London Pric hadn't been the waste of space I'd expected but it's still better out the set than in. The omission of God! Show Me Magic and The International Language Of Screaming was disappointing, as they are short, exciting and ever-welcome tracks and warranted inclusion much more than Demons or Moped Eyes. But it was still a good set and after 12 years of seeing SFA live I guess I'm lucky they're still brilliant at all! On the way out I noticed the merchandise stand was selling a few singles but chose to head straight back to the hotel to draft a review then go to bed. This is where I must impress on you all never to stay in the Britannia Hotel as a disco was going on downstairs which was so loud it wasn't physically possible to sleep. It was so bad I actually complained, something I rarely do, especially after seeing one of the loudest bands in the world, but they said it would turn off eventually and thankfully it did around midnight, and it did provide an excuse to visit the bar for a quick Guinness. My next day was a testament to what a wonderful city Manchester is and how there's always something to do, even if my friend didn't want to venture outside the centre. A visit to the Science Museum was underwhelming (apparently they were on the verge of revamping it all) but a lunch of Caribbean curried goat was interesting, and I was thrilled to find a pub serving Paulaner on tap. After visiting the John Rylands Library for the first time plus noting Manchester Cathedral had scaffolding on the inside we enjoyed a top-notch Chinese meal then I headed home sensibly sober. SFA in Manchester could never disappoint but, for best results, I hope they'll let me write their setlist next time!
Mark: 9.0/10
Super Furry Animals
Support
Cate La Bon
Where
Manchester Ritz
When
16th October 2009
Price
£20.00
Who with
No-one
Position
At the front, towards the left
Comments
So much for SFA's declaration that they would only be promoting this album with outdoor shows! Nevertheless, a chance to see SFA for the fifteenth time and to give the Dark Days/Light Years show a second viewing was much appreciated. I originally thought I'd hold off booking this to leave room for a potential holiday and was shocked when Gigsandtours claimed the show had sold out! Fortunately for me I looked on seetickets a few weeks after this and found the "sell-out" situation was a lie and I was pleased to bag a ticket, following it up with a hotel booking. I was considering staying up north a second night but in the end figured I'd keep things simple and just hang around in Manchester for most of the Saturday. I really wish SFA would come back to Wolverhampton and make my life easier! I still consider the Dark Days/Light Years album to be a bit so-so compared to previous SFA works but the band are still light years ahead of most competition, despite a continuing lack of publicity. Things have in fact fallen so much that they would later be returning to Manchester to support Doves. Fucking shite Doves! It's a shame, as SFA would be bigger than U2 if anyone took the time to listen, and they're still miles better. As a review I read online said, consistency is not considered glamorous, and as SFA records are always decent no-one takes special notice of the band anymore. I also feel a bit robbed that they no longer release singles. This is depriving me of up to eight classic b-sides a year, and I have always believed that the only reason single sales fell was because shops stopped selling them. Yet another case of forced obsolescence, and I will never pay to download tracks!
Setlist
Furryvision ™
Zoom!
Do Or Die
(Drawing) Rings Around The World
Golden Retriever
Hometown Unicorn
Mt.
Moped Eyes
Demons
If You Don't Want Me To Destroy You
Inaugural Trams
The Very Best Of Neil Diamond
White Socks/Flip Flops
Blerwytirhwng?
Slow Life
Juxtapozed With U
Hello Sunshine
Earth
Neo Consumer
Crazy Naked Girls
The Man Don't Give A Fuck
Keep The Cosmic Trigger Happy
