GIG NUMBER SIXTY-FIVE
Who
The Soundtrack Of Our Lives may be four albums in but there was only Behind The Music I'd even got remotely familiar with, and even then just the handful of classic tunes on there, so I expected lots of stuff I didn't know and got it. On the whole it sounded very strong (much better than on record no doubt) but it's hard to pick out any individual moments from the newbies. Infra Riot indeed came second and provided the natural highlight, as I broke free and into the moshpit with the few out to have some fun (the rest believing you derive more pleasure from standing still and looking bored or something). Some fool managed to fling almost a full can of Stella in my face, leaving me to grab and drink the rest before it went to waste! The other guys in the band (five of them crammed onto the tiny stage) were all rocking out much as before but Ebbot provided the overwhelming presence at the front, eyeballing us in a worrying manner, screaming, and generally making you wonder whether he's insane, on drugs, stage acting or just Swedish. There's very few frontmen as memorable as Ebbot, particularly considering that gimmicks begin and end with the robe! That is probably why the records are so much less exciting, even if the single Heading For A Breakdown may have the best cover ever, as showcased in the pic above! There was a bit of moshing throughout nicely covering up the fact that this was shambolic stuff, performed ridiculously loudly and terribly out of tune. But this just made it more exciting as rock 'n' roll, and only less excellent to the chin strokers at the back.
Of the other songs, Still Aging was unleashed early although was swamped in my mind by Infra Riot, whereas Ten Years Ahead and Broken Imaginary Time provided a chance for the slower songs to shine, enhanced by a typically terrifying performance from Ebbot. But the main other individual moment of note was certainly Sister Surround, provoking a moshpit from start to finish. The sad truth is that only two songs by TSOOL are truly great, the others left behind as either "good but not as good" or indifferent. It says much for the power of the show that they didn't tear through 21st Century Rip Off at the end along with the once customary sit down segment, or find time for Mind The Gap and Nevermore, yet it was still excellent. Never before has a show been so out of tune and featured such a dubious choice of songs and pulled it off so well, either highlighting the power of a good performance or the brute brilliance of the holy duo of Infra Riot and Sister Surround. I shook Ebbot's hand plus one of the guitarists as they left stage, seemingly having won everyone over, but leaving me far too sweaty to continue the night. I'd in fact been planning to try and see Gruff SFA DJ at the Cornerhouse but in the excitement of the gig totally forgot about this! Three shows, three outstanding performances - TSOOL prove chaos can be consistent!
Mark: 8.0/10
The Soundtrack Of Our Lives
Support
Dror
Vinny Peculiar
Where
Manchester Hop And Grape
When
4th March 2005
Price
£11.00
Who with
Matt, Nick, Jim
Position
In the moshpit
Comments
Seeing TSOOL again was inevitable after their early afternoon show at Leeds 2002 provided the shock high point of the entire weekend. Although I was a bit surprised to see they were still going after it seemed so few had jumped onto the bandwagon back in the day, I'd got tickets months in advance for this "comeback", although never got round to buying their new album before as I'd intended. After a blast through just Infra Riot we set out hoping for a storming delivery of the great tunes and an entertaining stage performance. On balance we probably got just that. Vinny Peculiar were first on but the room was deserted so we simply elected to go back downstairs to the union bar. Halfway through Dror we came back up. I would at this point aim some vitriol at the utter mediocrity of nearly all support acts but in this case cannot even pretend to remember them whatsoever. In fact I'm not even too sure we saw much of them, or any at all! We got nicely in towards the front, Nick checking out the setlist to confirm that Infra Riot would be the second tune. We tried our best to get a "TA SOOL!" chant going which was semi-effective, before the band arrived onstage one by one to massive applause, Ebbot naturally milking it for all it was worth!
