GIG NUMBER TWENTY-EIGHT
Who
Welsh band Erban Poets provided an entertaining start with their joke rap approach, although I hope there's no-one out there who takes this stuff seriously. The main man was called DJ Jaffa though, which remains one of the coolest names ever! They went down as well as you could really have expected them too, but were clearly trying to be naughty by openly smoking on stage! Being the first show for the new album, there was most definitely a huge element of surprise: I had no idea what the band would play! After an introductory snippet of a lovely (Drawing) Rings Around The World remix, I was thrilled to hear the opening number was Ice Hockey Hair! After spending the last few hours singing it, this was absolutely perfect, nicely replacing Wherever I Lay My Phone (That's My Home) and Drygioni which, although natural openers during the Guerrilla and Mwng periods respectively, didn't always work live.
We then got a string of brilliantly chosen songs to keep the show massively on track. Play It Cool was absolutely astonishing, and I felt like I'd finally got it after four years of continuous listening. Showing the other fans how to do the handclaps properly is always a favourite trick of mine too! Receptacle For The Respectable was also outstanding, even though I don't think I'd ever heard it before. The show then lapsed into a long quiet segment before Northern Lites and Juxtapozed With U made us explode with joy again. The big blue box dominated the stage and it was nice to see it finally being used to help with the vocoders. There certainly was no shortage of eye candy, as the band had a video screen featuring highlights from the album DVD, along with past videos, most notably Play It Cool and Northern Lites. Seeing the video for Receptacle For The Respectable while enjoying the song live was something special too.
This is probably the place where I should air my criticisms as I always try to tell both sides of the tale. The video screen was nice and probably worked here but it meant the band made less effort at looking interested, and they had to play along at the given pace, meaning that the show lacked the randomness of previous gigs. The quiet segment also started to become a problem at this show too, and it's another thing the band have continued to do although I wish they'd cut it back! Given a choice, I'd go for the blinding light show and no more than two quiet songs in a row, and I'm hoping the band sit up and take note on this point! God! Show Me Magic and The International Language Of Screaming were also tragically cut from the set to make way for these quiet numbers, and I thought that seemed very wrong. And I suppose that's why the Guerrilla shows were so much better in a nutshell! But this show definitely picked up a lot for its final third, with No Sympathy leading into the typically apocalyptic Night Vision (with Gruff using the blue box for distorted vocals).
The Man Don't Give A Fuck was very nice but too short, as a small bit of techno led us into Gwreiddiau Dwfn/Mawrth Oer Ar Y Blaned Neifion. This was probably on balance one step too far, as I'd much rather had enjoyed far more of TMDGAF! After the band returned briefly for new song [A] Touch Sensitive, the show developed into an astonishing techno workout involving Arnold Schwarzenegger and the line "best mindfuck yet" from Total Recall. It was quite amazing, although at the time I couldn't figure out what the line was no matter how many times it was repeated. "Breast mine fucky it" was my best guess! But this was certainly quite amazing, with the close-ups on Arnie's mouth as he said it providing what was probably the greatest experience of a lifetime for anyone here on drugs. In retrospect I loved it, but at the time just wanted my panda rave back! This was definitely not a perfect show, and for obvious reasons was probably less special than the set during the day. However, despite many things which would had been better if done differently, this was still a better gig than 99.99% of bands on this planet could dream of performing, and very much an awesome show!
Mark: 9.0/10
Super Furry Animals
Support
The Erban Poets
Where
Manchester Academy
When
16th June 2001
Price
£13.50
Who with
Nick
Position
At the front, in the middle!
Comments
After the perfect chaos of the acoustic gig came the main event. We had actually left the acoustic venue as fast as we could, rushing across the quite insane roads of the city to ensure we were first in the queue here, although our concern seemed misplaced as no-one else really came along for quite a few hours. I tried to teach a fellow fan (someone who like us simply had nothing better to do than queue) the opening verse to Ice Hockey Hair, whilst a typical Manchester local kept bothering us for change. This day was my first real taste of Manchester before spending four years up there for University and work, and I'd see the same hobo many times again! My mates even went round the back for a while, coming back claiming to have met the band. I had stayed round the front to preserve our "place" in the queue, despite no-one else being there yet, and I remain quite confident that this story was all an elaborate lie to try and make me feel jealous! The other fans did eventually come along though and, after what must had been three hours hanging around by the venue making the SFA look popular, we were relieved to get our place at the front!
Setlist
Ice Hockey Hair
(Drawing) Rings Around The World
Play It Cool
Receptacle For The Respectable
Do Or Die
It's Not The End Of The World?
Nythod Cacwn
Fragile Happiness
Run! Christian, Run!
Northern Lites
Juxtapozed With U
Demons
No Sympathy
Night Vision
The Man Don't Give A Fuck
Gwreiddiau Dwfn/Mawrth Oer Ar Y Blaned Neifion
[A] Touch Sensitive
Best Mindfuck Yet
