The Boardwalk, Sheffield (1st night), 6th October 2005

cracking gig... the boardwalk was rammed full.... a great atmosphere. sheffield was really up for it!

mind you the crowd seemed a little passive at first... rather static - but got going well enough somewhere after 'what about us'! after which point there was lotsa dancing & lotsa grinning..... good humoured moshing ensued.

setlist included the following (i can't quite remember the order as i currently have the brain of a goldfish - but i'm sure someone else can....!)
ride away, sparta, pacifying joint, what about us, assume, midnight aspen, bo doodak, wrong place/grass grow, boxoctosis, mountain energei, ya wanner, clasp hands, blindness.... touch sensitive

only one encore but i guess the sheffield crowd was being left wanting more... see some of you lot tomorrow i hope!

tickets for tomorrow's repeat performance were being sold for £7.50 to those of us who were there tonight

there was duetting from the guy who appeared at liverpool & sheffield on previous occasions - whose name escapes me....

managed to make the last bus home at 11.30 - blimey! not know at previous sheff fall gigs!

cough.....

Any knob twiddling mic lead keyboard intrusion type stuff..?

yup!

points at which steve's bass was completely cut off... then brought back with a vengeance....

plus MES managed to pull out the connections of one of his mics - just like manchester on saturday - so was left singing happily but silently away till he realised & tossed the mic down.

MES was wearing a new shorter & v shiny leather jacket - over a white polo shirt.... kept putting his jacket on & taking it off again

having said all of that - there wasn't too much fuckin about - the set is really tight. blindness was good (better than Mcr version on sat to my taste - but seemed to hurtle along at breakneck speed....)

elenor was wearing very nice fishnets... the one's with extra big nets. i'm v fond of these & have a pair myself!

I think I saw you down the front, on the right near Steve Gen...? Was that you?!

Anyway, the set was:-

Youwanner
Theme from Sparta FC
Pacifying Joint
Ride Away
Assume
Wrong Place, Right Time/I Can Hear the Grass Grow
What About Us?
Midnight Aspen
Mountain Energei
Touch Sensitive
Bo Demmick
Clasp Hands
Blindness

Open the Boxoctosis

yeah - i was at the front on the right - in front of steve..... short hair/wearing black t shirt/red lips..... (me - not steve! )

who/where were you? looked for yr badge!

how come yr posting? surely yr not back in notts already!?

Utterly amazing gig. The sound was absolutely superb, with every instrument clear and vocals very good. And the band were perfect.

The Open the Box encore duet bloke is Dougie James. He did Touch Sensitive at Nottingham back in March, and this was just as good. MES was loving it!

I think Blindness was easily the best version ever. It was a great heaving, sweating behemoth of a song. Utterly stunning.

Talking of heaving, sweating behemoths, the middle-aged mosh-pit was particularly active tonight, especially during What About Us? and Blindness.

And like Gen says, there were some (though not many) 'live-mixing' incidents where Mark turned Steve or Ben right down, and then whacked them back up. Excellent!

He turned Steve particularly loud during Blindness and part of Bo Demmick.

It was great to hear Youwanner, although it was a very short version. He sang a different vocal in Assume, changing 'Capitan' into something completely different ('Ragitan' or something....??).

I'd have loved to have heard the new Monks cover, but Youwanner compensated. They played just over an hour. More would be nice, but I think he needs to save his energy for this gruelling tour.

The one negative of the night was Eleni's keyboard sound. There was nothing wrong with her playing, but the notes from the new keyboard were really harsh and grating, rather than the retro honking noises we've grown to love over the last year or so. At times it sounded like an electric razor. And not in a good way.....

Her stockings more than compensated though....

MES was on superb form, despite looking very pale. He had a nice smiley moment with Ben, trying to push him towards the front of the stage, and was also really grooving and clicking fingers to a couple of tunes.

Top night.

I was a few yards back on the left.

I was wearing a red tracksuit top and a Diana Rigg t-shirt.

Yeah, back in Long Eaton. Junction 25 takes well under an hour....

Resist were a bit lame, sounding like a dated mix of industrial rock and (believe-it-or-not) Toyah....

They slightly misjudged the crowd when the singer introduced one song with "This is for any Nine Inch Nails fans out there..."

Having said that, they didn't deserve some of the abuse they got from some of our less open-minded frenz...."Get off, you're fucking shit!" etc.

I always think people like that would perhaps be better off going to the bar for a drink or something so that the 3 people who were actually enjoying the support could do so without inane interruption....

And the projection show thing, while deeply unnerving and very impressive for about 2 minutes (the Freddie Mercury bit), just dragged on and on and became very repetitive and frankly dull....

You haven't yet mastered the subtle Clayts art of turning up at the venue with exactly two minutes to go before the start of the Fall's set yet, then ?

I tend to forego the 'pleasure' of support acts, even the great Mr C-C - one trick pony...a very good, but slightly dishevelled pony

Nah, I believe in giving these youngsters a chance....!

The support at Nottingham in 2003 was amazing - utterly bonkers, and quite Fall-ish.

I can't remember what they were called now, but I got chatting to the singer when I bumped into him at the Ian MacKaye gig at the Boat Club.

Here are a few pics....

I was too far back to get really decent ones, and the only ones I got of Eleni are rubbish, as she was over on the right and I was on the left. Sorry...!

Huzzah, Steve and Ben are back in their rightful places

Just the thing for someone with the brain of a goldfish....

Who the hell was that aimed at ? Hope you mean yourself....

Can we see them anyway? Every pic is of vast historical importance.

Silvershirt here back from the brink of apathy.

I have to admit I was getting a little aprehensive reading the previous reports of the gigs completed, until now!! Thanks Sheffield attendees you have renewed my excitement for edinburgh pending.

If these holes in the nets are so big, why dont elena and generalista fall out of them?

off to snort some bistogranules see if I cant clog up this streaming nose of mine.

Silvershirt

Fantastic stuff. Relentless was the word in my head as I left.

I have seen a lot of stop and start Fall gigs and a lot of gigs with highs and lows. Last night they walked on started up and were fantstatic for just over an hour, then left us. I can't pick any highlights as it was all top qulaity, enjoyed every second of every song.

Band in good form, MES in even better form.

Looking forward to a repeat tonight, though slightly worried that if Mark is spending the day in Sheffield I can't see him spending it shopping round Meadowhall!

I was in a Captain Beefheart t-shirt standing by the wall on the left facing the stage. Good to see Dougie James making a repeat appearance. Seems to be a regular Sheffield thing.

More imperssions later.

Dan

skill.... and practice.....

better in than out I say....having said that there is now a supermassive globule of hardened gravy up my nose, I need a pickaxe.

Read Gen's first post....

Well, some more of my impressions.

First support act: just funny, Lots of cavorting in a hopelessly unsexy manner. No idea what the songs were about. Probably about not liking Canada.

Second support act: sexier, just by virtue of having girls in furry boots. You could tell what the songs were about, if that matters (it doesn't, really), but the sentiment was Celine Dion. I quite liked the fact that the blokes on drums on guitars were quite clearly twice the age of the girls. Didn't like the vocals. Did like the announcement that one song was for all the NIN fans. That was hilarious and showed some small wit.

Film thing. Good to have something to fill in the gap between support and Fall. Could do with more stuff like this, I think. Almost doesn't matter whether it's much good. Assault us with images as well as sound!

The poor Offbeat people who were originally down to DJ unfortunately didn't get to, because the Fall brought their own DJ. Kind of not an unexpected small disaster, I think.

Good crowd. Mostly bald headed men, maybe mostly 30s rather than 40s. Not so many ageing punks as last time when JCC supported. But a reasonable smattering of young faces and women. More of a mosh pit than last time.

Can't remember the last time the Fall cracked on like that. Just came on stage and cranked out the songs with little messing. One of the songs kind of sounded a bit confused and messy, but that may have been an effect of volume and acoustics - didn't seem to be struggling among themselves on stage. It was very loud.

MES destroyed the mike stand set up with aplomb, though. Some amp-twiddling. Inspection of fingers/fingernails. Leather jacket on/off/on/off again. Much use of two mics.

Noticed that he varied his vocal approach a little with some songs. One in particular sounded like he was half dead, but then next song sounded alive again, so must have been deliberate effect.

Liked the bit where MES approached Ben with scary toothless piranha grin and pushed Ben forwards, pointing at crowd.

My companion and I thoroughly approved of the evening.

Dan