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Erebus
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1834 Posts |
 Posted - 05/13/2006 : 13:28:14
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I know there have been a couple Fall topics here but I can’t find them, so here’s a new one. While I’m hardly the Fall uberfan, dimeadozen has been hosting torrents from the current US tour, to include some hilarious reports. Imagine Frank & the Catholics up to such shenanigans! Long post, with links, follows, strictly for the humor. I encourage you to visit http://www.thefall.info/fallsite/ (a great site) for the gig reports, especially the comments.
The Fall
The Brickhouse, Phoenix
Sunday May 7th 2006
http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=94873
A spectacular (bonkers) night out in Phoenix. The details have been much discussed in room C-H-1-O-C-H-11, but listening to this you may not even notice anything wrong (except the very short set). In the unlikely event that you hadn't heard, there was an early hold up when keyboard was not in place, hence the extended intro that I left in here as it is part of the story. Then two songs in, the lead singer from the support band, The Talk, threw a banana skin at MES which hit him square on the side of the head. Our hero finished the sentence he was singing before carefully removing his jacket to follow the miscreant, who had sprinted outside to the rear car park, hopefully to discuss with him the error of his ways (including the dismal standard of the music his band is putting out). The Fall group meanwhile just looked at each other and continued. MES and Elani returned just as the song was winding up and basically the band just kicked into another one. Highly professional.
A couple of other things went wrong with the sound later and eventually MES dragged Elani off and the band followed after they had completed the tune they were doing. Elani (who strikes me as a really nice lady) bravely reappeared to offer an explanation. Not a great deal of animosity from the 50 or 60 so punters. I'm sure they realised that this was one of the worst organised venues in the history of the Fall (which is saying something) with no tickets, no beer and hence no crowd.
Sadly I think this will be the last show with the current line-up as the 3 lads appear to have quit and are on their way back to Blighty leaving MES a couple of days to train a new band before San Diego on Tuesday.
Another normal US tour then.
GIG : The Brick House, Phoenix, AZ
http://www.thefall.info/fallsite/?p=241#comments
The Fall played at The Brick House, Phoenix on Sunday 7th May supported by The Talk (who will not be supporting the group on any further dates on this tour) and The Okmoniks
Apologies to all for the curtailed set, caused by technical problems.
HFE Says:
Monday, 8th May 2006 at 6:32 pm | |
As I understand, the technical problems consisted of the fact that Mark is ‘technically’ a total fuck up shit-head of a human being, and that the current musicians ‘technically’ are generic suck-asses. How pathetic & sad.
The Fall
The House of Blues, San Diego, CA.
Tuesday 9th May 2006
http://www.thefall.info/fallsite/?p=224#comments
frank Says: Wednesday, 10th May 2006 at 4:37 pm | |
But first, I would like to express my hatred for House of Blues. Especially HOB San Diego, which is like a dungeon. It is. It just is. It’s not even attached to the main House of Blues part, to see live music, you have to go through this weird security detail where a woman takes your ticket and scans it for viruses, and then another guy waves a big wand all over your body while groping you. Then you go inside, and you can’t come back out. No-reentry. No-reentry, no smoking inside. No smoking inside, no smoking outside. No smoking, no happy. Also it’s just completely dank inside the place, no matter how much “naive art” they plaster the walls with. And there are no chairs. None. Unless you bought the “dinner package,” and then you get a folding chair directly behind the sound board, where you can’t see anything. In short: fuck the House of Blues.
OK. Video guy doing his video stuff. Pretty interesting, but goes on way too long. .... [snip] About ten minutes after video guy goes away, three scruffy looking guys come on stage and plug in their guitars. Who are these guys? I dunno. I thought maybe they were The Talk. Without any kind of fuss they launch directly into “Bo Demmick”. They have it nailed, spot perfect, just like on the album, and then Elena comes out with her big polka dotted bag, places it next to her keyboards, and starts tapping along with the song. (I should mention here that Elena looks way hotter in person than in photos, and that’s saying a lot. Most of you lucky bastards probably already knew this and weren’t telling me.) About five minutes go behind, and these weird dudes are just grinding that riff.
I’ll set up the new fellas here. The guitarist is a skinny guy with sort of a moddish haircut, like something you’d imagine every member of the Vines probably has. The bass player is a big lumberjack looking guy with a neck beard (or meth beard as people in these parts have started to call them… think Will Oldham with dark hair. The drummer is totally normal looking with short blond hair and looks like he enjoys long walks on the beach and playing dominos.
Oh yeah, they all look scared shitless.
Then Smif walks out, all scary black like. Black pants, black shirt, black jacket, like he was going to a funeral. Casually saunters out, as if he opened the backstage door and forgot he was supposed to do a concert. He gets to the mic and (”Good evening we are the Fall, from the land of bees  and [unintelligible] where Harry Potter!”) starts hollering “Hey fatty!” over and over. Good groove on this one. As good as most of the other live versions I’ve heard. Crowd goes crazy (audience is about 125 people, I’d estimate.)
Then the weird thing happens. Elena starts playing the intro to “Pacifying Joint” and the band looks totally confused. Apparently they did not get the speed learning course for this song earlier in the day. They know they’re supposed to play “Midnight In Aspen,” though, because they’re looking at the setlist and it says right there: “Aspen.” So they look at each other all question marky like, and start playing “Aspen.” Elena refuses to give up on “Joint.” MES isn’t helping, and starts singing “Aspen,” at which point Elena switches to the correct song and everybody is happy. Except Smith decides to make things weirder and inserts the chorus to “What About Us,” except instead of those lyrics he’s singing “What about drugs”…crazy…also Elena randomly goes back into “Pacifying Joint” a couple of times.
Next is “Sparta,” and it’s a shambling mess. I just can’t even discuss it. It’s all out of key and everything is in the wrong place and for the first time I’m really missing the old guys doing the “Hey hey hey” parts. Wah.
But then, the drummer lopes into the opening slams from “Mountain Energei,” the rest of the band follows right along, and the whole thing is muscular and tight and freaking fantastic. It goes on for seven or eight minutes, just pure bliss. About ten percent of the crowd (including me) start pogoing for no apparent reason.
Also during this song, Smith starts fucking with the microphone stands. At one point he completely tangles himself in the cords while singing into two mics, somehow gets himself out of it, then creates a giant spider web across half the stage with all the mic cords. He seems pleased with it and leaves them like that for most of the rest of the set.
Next is “Wrong Place, Right Time.” I see where Big Crashing Beat thought it was fantastic. I’m not sure. I thought the band couldn’t figure out how they were supposed to play it. It was pretty good, but I’m almost certain it was a horrible mistake that got saved through gutsy improvisation.
Here I’ll mention that Smith seems relaxed and in good humor for the whole set. He even told a joke! “This next one is called…how do you get to the bar,” he says, staring down the long bar directly opposite his viewpoint at the back of the venue. “Do you know it?” He cracks himself up with his joke. He also does the “we are the Fall” bit twice for some reason.
Now here comes the stunner: an absolutely amazing version of “What About Us.” It’s this set’s “Blindness” and goes on for almost ten minutes. The band completely finds the groove and digs hard into it, Smith is into it, Elena is into it, the crowd is hypnotized. Smith starts fiddling with Elena’s keyboards halfway through, then goes over to the bass player and turns the bass almost all the way off, doesn’t like what he’s hearing, so he turns all the knobs all the way up, then he wanders over to the guitarist and turns him completely off for about 30 seconds before bringing him back into the mix. Also, a pack of Marlboro Reds has magically appeared in his hand while he’s doing this. He wanders offstage, comes back on, sings a few more verses, then tells the band to wrap it up, and just like that the set proper is done.
After Smith has his smoke, the band comes back on and does “I Can Hear the Grass Grow” (above average) and “Mr. Pharmacist” (great) and that’s it. They leave and the house lights come up. Most of the crowd is confused, but not me, because I have super sekrit Fall knowledge (that “knowledge” like “know,” a ledge filled with knowledge: a whole lot of knowing of stuff) and I knew what to expect.
Overall: just brilliant, considering the circumstances. I don’t know where they found these guys, but all three of the musicians are outstanding, as good as (and it breaks my heart to say this) Pritchfordwistle in almost every way possible. Sure, they’ll probably have to turn in their Fallgruppe union cards come June 2, but they have me really excited for the next few shows I’ll be seeing…if they can do this on one day’s notice… Color me impressed. By the time they get to Chicago (hiya Kris!) they should be one shit hot band.
I’ll save the corny “always different, always the same,” except, you know, it’s true. The Fall. Amazing and bizarre, the eternal forkout….
The Fall
The Glass House, Pomona, CA.
Thursday 11th May 2006
http://www.thefall.info/fallsite/?p=234#comments
frank Says: Friday, 12th May 2006 at 9:18 am | |
The show got pushed back an hour from its start time and they didn’t open the doors until well after 8 PM. This seemed to confuse many people who were standing outside. Geez. Doesn’t anybody pay attention? Anyway, Safi the video guy eventually got his stuff set up and going, but 45 minutes later than he was supposed to, according to the hastily tacked up flyer outside announcing the schedule change. Whatever. He cut his thing short by several minutes, and without even giving him time to clean his crap up, The New Fall walk out at promptly 10:30, just like the flyer said, plug their stuff in, and launch into “Bo Demmick.”
Not much different from the San Diego version, except Smith comes out almost immediately and doesn’t keep them churning out the riff over and over. Fashion report: Smith is dressed in all black again, except tonight he’s wearing a short sleeved, button-up shirt. Like a lay minister, without the white collar. Another good version of this song, much more concise than Tuesday’s.
Next, Elena plays the opening “Pacifying Joint” bars, and I think me and two or three other people in the room were the only ones to tense up. Marvel of marvels, however: the band has learned the song! Not only have they learned it, they’ve learned it real good. Still not my favorite song, but this is a totally presentable version of it, made all the more remarkable by the fact that this is the first time the fill-ins have played it live, not counting the abortion at Tuesday’s show in San Diego.
And then, to add to the jocularity, we next get a complete, discrete version of “Midnight in Aspen.” The guitarist is a little off-key here, and the bass player keeps giving him the dirty eye, but Smith seems pleased with it, singing into two mics at the same times and sort of crooning his vocals, and it gets huge applause from the audience.
Next up is “Sparta”. Huge improvement from Tuesday. Vast improvement. It sounds just like Ben, Steve and Spencer used to do it, right down to the “Hey!” parts, which come from the heavily bearded bass player. He’s right on cue with Elena, the drummer and guitarist are right on top of their parts, and the whole thing just rocks. Thoroughly.
Smith isn’t messing with stuff so much tonight. Very little knob twiddling, no making messes of the mic cords. He’s looking sort of grim, but not in an unhappy way. I’d say he looks extremely proud of himself. (”He’s…uh…he’s not a very nice man,” the lady at the ticket booth confided to me before the show, her eyes sort of darting around nervously as she blurted it out. I assured her it was nothing she’d done. Probably. “His band is very nice, and very young,” she added. “And his wife is gorgeous.” The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?)
“Mountain Energei” next, a pulsating beast of a version. Orpheo McCord, the drummer: he is the shit. I think I now believe he’s the best drummer the Fall has ever had, and he’s only played two shows. -> here is an imaginary picture of me shrugging helplessly. He’s merciless and powerful and I bet he could carry tree trunks around with his bare hands. He looks sort of skinny and goofy, too. He does these random machine-gun fills that are just thrilling beyond words, and whenever Smith stalks up to his drum kit, he starts grinning so hard it looks like his head is going to split in two, like a South Park Canadian.
Next is “Wrong Place, Right Time.” Now this is a very interesting version. It’s got some of what was going on in San Diego, but all the parts fit together really well now. The bass player is strumming hard on all four strings to make a really meaty, rhythm guitar-like part, while the guitarist is playing weird effects, like echo chamber stuff and industrial noises and nothing but weird stuff. It all works really well. It’s a really interesting take on this old warhorse, like nothing I’ve ever heard them do before.
The guitarist is doing an interesting thing tonight. For several songs (and most noticably on “Energei,”) he’s playing his guitar parts like Scanlon would have played them, not Pritchard. All sinewy muscle and nervous energy. Not the workmanlike garage band sound that Ben is really great at. Not totally Scanlon either, he’s definitely got his own thing going on.
I have to be honest, I’m becoming emotionally attached to these new guys. It’s going to hurt when they get sent back to their day jobs, or LA bands, or whatever it is they do. On the other hand, Darker My Love just minted themselves a new fan, and I haven’t heard a single thing they’ve done.
In fact, I should call them by their names. Tim, Rob and Orpheo next launch into the second straight absolutely shredding version of “What About Us” in as many nights. The lads have this one utterly figured out. When MES and Elena come in on the chorus it’s just thrilling on every level.
Then Smith walks off after about five minutes of the song. Rob (the bass player) looks alarmed and goes over to Elena. Reading his lips, he roughly asks “Now what do we do?” She roughly replies, “We leave.” She picks up her bag, the boys stop playing and put their instruments down and they all leave.
The Glass House has this, well, glass partition that you can look through and see what’s happening backstage. I peer through this thing and see that they’re all standing around smoking and joking around.
Two minutes later, back onstage! “I Can Hear the Grass Grow,” a competent and professional take, and then I’m thinking next is “Mr. Pharmacist” and we all go home.
But wait! Those are the opening bars to “Blindness”! My prayers have been answered. It starts out a little sloppy, a little formulaic, but the boys soon get the hang of it. Smith is totally inspired, doing the whole “Blindness” thing, the high-pitched “I was only on one leg,” etc. Halfway through the musicians pick it up and clamp down on that crazy groove like nobody’s business. They’re moving with it, too, really getting into that song. It’s a great song, and they’re totally aware of it. Then Smith walks off again. Rob the bass player, who is emerging as sort of their leader, looks at the other guys and tells the drummer to stop playing, then he and Tim improvise for about three minutes alone, and then the drummer comes back in and they slam the crap out of the song. But then Smith comes back onstage with a slightly annoyed look on his face, turns off the guitar amp, and gestures them all offstage. They hep to and get out of there.
Wait wait wait. House lights not on yet. Second encore! They come back and do “Mr. Pharmacist,” a really funky version with a slowed down tempo, and then the middle part, which is just breakneck speed. Amazing and spectacular, one of the finest versions of this song I’ve ever heard.
And that’s it.
I’m really enjoying these shows. I know it won’t last, but these new musicians have made the Fall menacing again, something that has been sorely lacking, in my opinion. There was a swagger in Pomona that just hasn’t been there in years. We are The Fall, goddamit. Cast out, cast out; as if from heaven.
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Edited by - Erebus on 05/13/2006 13:52:18 |
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BLT
> Teenager of the Year <
South Sandwich Islands
4204 Posts |
Posted - 05/13/2006 : 16:00:10
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Ha! I love The Fall and I've seen them play on three occasions but never since Steve Hanley and Craig Scanlon left. They're scheduled to play tonight at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood. In spite of the review of the Glass House show, I'm thankful I didn't get tickets.
 Does anyone remember laughter? |
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Erebus
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1834 Posts |
Posted - 05/14/2006 : 05:25:49
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Well, BLT, here's the Knitting Factory report, in the words of the fearless "frank", who says he's about to drive up to San Francisco for the shows there:
http://www.thefall.info/fallsite/?p=221#respond
Life is something that matter does. |
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BLT
> Teenager of the Year <
South Sandwich Islands
4204 Posts |
Posted - 05/14/2006 : 09:12:23
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Sounds like it was good. (sigh)
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Edited by - BLT on 05/14/2006 09:12:58 |
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the Fall: current US tour
