Vienna, 12th October 2004

Just back from the gig at the Szene Wien, and a nice gig it was. One of those where I didn't feel old, as the male crowd was mostly my age - i.e. mid to late thirties, with only a few exceptions. Female crowd slightly younger. Three pretty mad-looking goths were also present. Did they expect a song about them?

Anyways, the setlist:
Intro tape: Recovery Kit
1) Bo Doodak
2) Boxoctosis
3) All Clasp Hands
4) Sparta FC
5) Mad Mock Goth
6) Wrong Place, Right Time / I Can Hear the Grass Grow
7) Mr Pharmacist
8) Mountain Energei
9) What About Us
10) Janet + Johnny
11) Green Eyed Loco Man
12) Contraflow (setlist said "Spoilt Victorian Child", but they changed their mind)
13) Blindness
Encores:
14) Touch Sensitive
15) White Lightning

This was a "doors open at 8pm" gig, which means that if there's a support act the main act usually starts around 10pm, and lo and behold, the lights were dimmed at 10pm sharp. Gig starts not one minute later than expected. Group enters to the sound of "Recovery Kit" from tape.

Bo Doodak (title according to the group's setlist) - M.E.S. enters with huge black glove on his left hand. They put up three microphones for him to sing into, and he's having a hard time choosing between them. Didn't understand any of the lyrics, but the song isn't bad.

Boxoctosis - sounded almost like "Mad Mock Goth", only much much faster and heavier. Anyway, M.E.S. removes his jacket and black glove very early in the song without much further ado. After the song, he jokes about being here for "the Viennese Mercury Music Prize awards for the most promising new group".

Clasp Hands - played very very fast. The slow "Elves"-like part seems to be definitely gone now, and that's a good thing because the current version just rocks in a "Prole art Threat"-like way. Frenetic audience response, even though it was a completely new song that most people didn't know. This was easily the best song this evening.

Mad Mock Goth - M.E.S. sings the first half of the song hidden behind some contraption on the stage, but reappears and fiddles with Jim's amp, creating a nice scratchy sound. Quite an improvement.

Green Eyed - I never liked this song, but the way they played it today was a true revelation. This rocks! I so hope the version on "Interim" is something like this. During the song, M.E.S. readjusts Steve's bass amp, creating some really sinister thumping sounds. Woot! Second best song this evening.

Contraflow - apparently they wanted to play "Spoilt Victorian Child", but changed their minds. At the beginning of the song, M.E.S. takes a folded pack of crumpled pieces of paper from his pocket (lyric sheets?) and tries to unfold them, but gives up and just lets them fall on the floor and sings on without them. What was that about?

Blindness - audience somewhat confused at first because they don't know the song, but quickly get into the groove. Great song and just too short at over 7 minutes, even though the way they played it tonight didn't build up as nicely as the Peel Sessions version. Towards the end, M.E.S. plays with the setting of all amps, creating just one big distortion.

Exit band, and re-enter for encores. M.E.S. sings "Touch sensitive" with black glove back on his hand, but removes it for "White Lightning". Well, whatever. Some minor moshing during that song, too. When they leave the stage to frenetic applause, some stupid git throws an empty paper beer cup at Eleni. She looks positively angry and throws it back. Audience keep shouting for more music, but don't get any. "Recovery Kit" tape comes on again. Gig over after approx. 75 minutes.

All in all a very solid gig without any negative surprises. Really good sound, too. It wasn't one of these gigs that felt like some kind of revelation (except for "Green Eyed" perhaps), but it was good - one of the best I've seen from them, actually. After this longish tour, you'd expect some kind of routine feeling, which was there sometimes, but never took over. Ben seemed to enjoy himself, and even M.E.S. smiled after the frenetic response to "Clasp Hands".

The group seem really very much in sync now, and playing together really well. It's the "M.E.S. and his guild of gifted craftsmen" feeling once again, which I haven't felt with the Fall in a long time. Ben, Steve and Spencer were playing so precisely that it was a pleasure to watch and listen; not sure about Jim, he stayed very much in the background and his guitar was discernible only once, when M.E.S. changed the setting of his amp, and that was good. Not sure about Eleni either - the songs were all very guitar-oriented so she never really had a chance to stand out.

I've seen several different incarnations of The Fall live, and this is the first time since their 1988 gig in Vienna that I felt they have once again become a true live band and that their live performance is actually better than their studio recordings - even with a pretty good album like TRNFLFTCOTC.

Had a brief talk to Ben and Steve afterwards at the bar, about group dynamics, tour schedules, Boddington's bitter and the erratic genius of M.E.S. Great lads, both of them. Hope M.E.S. lets them stay in the band for a while.

I was at the vienna gig too, thought it was fantastic, but had to leave early because my last train was at 11. I disproved my own theory that I would sleep rough to see The Fall, and chose to go home to my bed rather than sleep in a cold Vienna park. My highlight was Sparta FC, and the beer.

If I sounded underwhelmed -- I wasn't. This was certainly one of the Top 10 gigs I've ever been to, it just that Mark E. Smith just doesn't emanate that positive friendliness that Mike Watt has for instance. So emotionally, there was room for improvement, but technically, and musically, it was really great, and the whole thing rocked seriously. I never thought The Fall would become such a great live band again.

Pity you had to leave early -- there were lots of really good stuff later on.

By the way, there exists a recording of the entire gig -- pretty poor quality as the mic didn't pick up much of the really glorious bass, but enough to get a rough idea. Now I can't make this available publicly because (1) I didn't record it, and (2) I'm afraid of copyright lawyers, but since you paid for the ticket, I guess you're kind of entitled to hearing all of the concert.

So drop me a note if you're interested and which of the songs you're interested in.

First time I saw The Fall was almost 20 years ago to the day - give or take a week and a few days - Edinburgh 1984..!

Outstanding performance in Vienna last night. Great mix of tracks... Although one of these days I'm going here Mr Smith do my all time favourite cover version live - "Lost In Music"...

Really one of the best line-ups of The Fall I have ever seen/heard - an incredable band... Strong rhythm section - solid druming...!

Szene Wien - hats off for the great front of house sound... on par with John Cale on the same stage last November.

Der Standard, a Vienna newspaper, published a review today (in German):
http://derstandard.at/?url=/?id=1824406

It's a bit odd and pseudo-intellectual, like most of their reviews, but generally positive ("The Fall haven't been in such excellent shape for quite a while"). If more than just two or three people are interested, I can translate the more interesting bits.

I am interested, yes.

Here's the translated article (with omissions):