Manchester Bierkeller, 30th November 2004

My first live fall gig, so expect a bit of fan-boy worship.

Ok, so Carl and myself have been looking forward to this for some time, and after the trouble we had getting here (being stuck for a bus, nearly getting shot-up in cheetham hill (!) and then spending half an hour looking for FFD) we had high hopes.

Ive never been to the beerkieler before, and all i knew about it was that it was ment to have dodgy sound quality...
So we get there, were waitng for half an hour in the que for the bar and, pause for breath, the support is non-existent.
I thought JCC was on? oh well....
So for around about 1hour were listening to what ever the DJ wants to play...this so happens to be a hearty mix of Guns & Roses, Iron Maiden and Hip-hop!

Ok, Carl..you might as well grab another beer mate...
While carls at the bar i hear, can it be, the opening bars of Boxtosis?!
Shit, everyones just stood there, not sure they know this lots THE BAND and then, as if to confirm it....HE appears...MES


Wow, this guys a normal bloke (a drunken looking, older normal bloke) but its MES! anyone doubting it should listen to THAT voice...And count the teeth.

He's on form here! A storming set includes most of internim as well as This CD You Hold In Your Hand (?) and Mr. Pharmacist.
Then the guy encores with a storming "white lightning" which is a, gasp, crowd singalong! The sound quality is perfect.

"Well considering.....We Are-ah In-h......Ye Olde-ah Maaanchesterrrr-Ah....
Heres an old one,"

Big New Prinz!!!
Some guy in the crowds got the mic and is singing, but MES dosent care! Im drunk and im singing too (no mic, mind) and Carls drunk and HE'S singing and...WOW
This is Great!

After the band has gone off stage and the crowd have dissapered, me and carl sit on the stage reflecting. Ive already asked the soundguy if i could have the backdrop and, to his credit, he went and asked backstage before telling me that it "couldent be done, mate. Cost 300 quid"

Ive also asked the guitarist if he was the guy that played on Internim
"yeah but ive not heard it...ive read the reviews and they said it was bad though"
I told him i liked it, and not to worry as most of the fans do which is what matters at the end of the day.
"owwe Cheers mate, nice one" he looks genuinly chuffed! He shakes my hand, pats carls shoulder and walks off through the crowd...

Overall, A FUCKING ACE NIGHT...hopefully i'll be at tonights one too!

Sorry to be un-original everybody but I think Gaz has explained our whole night in the best detail it could be told in. But to at least add to this on my experience they were FUCKING AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Carl

Sounds like a good gig. Can't wait for the Liverpool gig, especially cos I missed them last time in April. Hope they play Big Prinz.

damn sounds like a blast.

Classic MES entrance - shuffles on stage and removes his jacket. Then removes ANOTHER jacket - is this guy a singer or a set of Russian dolls? Amazingly he has under this a black jumper which he will remove for the encore and a white shirt. What's beneath the shirt? A thermal T-shirt and string vest, no doubt. You'd think he'd be used to Manchester winters by now!

Anyway, the music - band really tight. Ben/Jim partnership gives the songs more power than before and Spen is a great drummer, powerful and jazzy at the same time. Elini's keyboard is more audible than before and MES ambles over to add some discordance from time to time.

Left the house hoping not to hear 'Green Eyed Loco Man' cos I was sick of it and ended up thinking it one of the highlights and playing it on repeat today... I Can Hear The Grass Grow is a joyous singalong although Wrong Place didn't do it for me. One of the newer Interim songs I though was going to be a cover of I Want Candy.

Mr Pharmacist was there inevitably, but it's always good when you're actually there. It's just the live albums where it gets repetitious.

Some pics are up at:
www.halfcutpublications.com/fall.html

So, how was yesterday?

Eleni's wearing the dress she had on at Moorfest. Mark ouught to take her shopping, the cheapskate.

and have you bought "interim", the_shrander?


cheers!
marco

Not yet. But I might just send the money to Eleni

Not yet. But I might just send the money to Eleni

yeah!
i bet she would hop overjoyfully!

ciao!
marco

So for the slight delay

It was only while listening to this gig that arrived yesterday I was looking for the review from the night only to find one never got posted, anyway I'm glad I now have a copy to jog my memory.

Anyway here goes :-

Set list as follows

01 - Open The Box...
02 - Dr Bucks Letter
03 - Mountain Energei
04 - Sparta FC
05 - What About Us?
06 - Protein Protection
07 - Blindness
08 - Mr Pharmacist
09 - Touch Sensitive
10 - Grass Grow
11 - Wrong Place
-----------------------
12 - White Lightning

Was a relatively short set due to club night that followed, though I don't remember too much about the gig due excessive alcohol consumption remember meeting up with Mark from this forum before hand and talking to FFD for a while as he sold Pseud Mag outside. Then meeting Josef and Tob once inside we stopped for club night which wasn't that great.

For some reason this lyric always sticks in my mind about this gig "the backdrop shifted and changed and this was The Fall goodnight"

Just posted this to the general forum, anyway, the support band who caused a bit of discussion at the time, the forest........blah, etc

New/first single out.
You can get a free download here, not bad as it happens.

http://www.nme.com/features/112097.htm

Doon - just wanted to say love the new avatar.

Post the BBC quiz ('find out who you are' on General Chat) on the recmisc if it's still going, and tell the people at BAE, if there's any still left, I said hello!

Cheers.

I'm trying to keep a low profile these days, (btw this forums up and running again at work) I'll have a looksee anyway.

Will do, you get a mention from time to time, no fall converts as of yet though. The Queen is dead got voted into the HoF last week along with some other stuff.

Yes, me and PDH livened things up there. PDH moved on too, I hear.

Tell 'em I'll come back and annoy them unless we get at least 1 new convert a week...