Zodiac, Oxford, 23rd October 2005

Wahey! Great gig. Support acts shite.

MES was on form and (I suspect) sober, so we were treated to 70 mins of blasting riffs n' rants. Hope someone recorded it...

Here's the setlist:

Youwanner
Bo D
Pacifying Joint
What About Us?
<crowd singing Frightened>
Mountain Energei
Sparta FC
Midnight Aspen
Assume
Clasp Hands
Touch Sensitive
Grass Grow
Ride Away
Mr. Pharmacist
Blindness

encore - Boxoctosis

Highlight for me was Blindness, (about 10 mins of it). Much pogoing tonight, ears still ringing, time for bed...

Jesus Christ. Resist are SHIT. Some kind of in joke one presumes.
On came the Fall. Mr Smith - white shirt, black leather jacket .
Quite a lot of jumping about. Not too much mucking about. The normal set.
Mr Pharmacist included for encore. Bed now.

Skeeeorcha!

Whaddagig! We were treated to , as previousy reported, a sober MES, a full 15 song set (14 on list plus extended highlights of 'Boxoctosis'), much slam/pogoing (my back is bruised, but my grin is almost coat-hanger induced ) and a 'We are The Fall' as an introduction to encore.

Mjungblu accompanied me at the front and has the set-list in his happy, sweaty mitts. I would assume he is as battered, and happy, as me.

Bought FHR t-shirt, which came in handy on the way back to SE London as my MC5 shirt was a sweaty rag at the end.

Also bumped into Kiespijn, Call Sign and Gappy Tooth - top chaps to a man they were, too!

Think Gappy T. may well have muffled recorded evidence of tonights soiree - expect to find out soon, kids.

Now bed beckons and I dream of Eleni

great stuff
apart from the one blip, this tour's looking like a good 'un.

i just hope it continues tomorrow in nottingham ( )
what time did the place fill up / what time did they come on? (i'm hoping to get down the front).

Billiant showing - full early on. Nice meeting some fellow-boarders for a natter.

Eleni's wicked keys were high in the mix on a storming Blindness, with additional echo effects on Spen's snare courtesy of the local soundman. Blistering, my highlight on a set which was delivered in overdrive.

No reservations - on tonight's performance the Fall gruppe are an invincible unit!



Big thanks to the security team.

Mine too

hello

astonishing stuff tonight - I could've frolicked around all night down the front.

"Sorry, I got
lost. Where's Roan and Drail?" He asked.
"Lost huh? Or were you out looking for you staff again?" Eliza asked, smiling at him.
"YOu know me too well." The old man said, and then laughed. "That staff means a lot to me, I really want to find it."
"Well we'll go out again tomorrow." She said, kneeling back down to the fire. She struck some flint, but the fire didn't seem to get going.
"Ragiten" the old man said, waving his hand around carelessly. Instantly the fire
exploded about three feet high.
"Thanks papa."

hello

astonishing stuff tonight - I could've frolicked around all night down the front.

"Sorry, I got
lost. Where's Roan and Drail?" He asked.
"Lost huh? Or were you out looking for you staff again?" Eliza asked, smiling at him.
"YOu know me too well." The old man said, and then laughed. "That staff means a lot to me, I really want to find it."
"Well we'll go out again tomorrow." She said, kneeling back down to the fire. She struck some flint, but the fire didn't seem to get going.
"Ragiten" the old man said, waving his hand around carelessly. Instantly the fire
exploded about three feet high.
"Thanks papa."

What have I told you before about licking the backs of toads, Mark?

Very good gig indeed. Got there to see both supports. Nought were first and were absolutely remarkable. Breakneck riffs driven at top speed by heavy drumming and riveted in by a heavy bass with sparse, shimmering moments of guitars, keyboards and beauty.

Resist were dull in a way that defied observation. Despite policy of skirts and fishnets, including the colossal bald bassist, they deflected attention with the ease of a political party broadcast. Instead of listening to the music you found yourself wondering about your next shopping list, when the council were going to fix that paving slab outside your house, possibly even contemplating a trip to the seven deep bar while all the time this dreary dirge like the incessant sound of a motorway bumbled clankily along in the background.

But after that dud The Fall came on and were majestic. They kicked off with a fizzing Youwanner and didn't stop. Smith was looking well and his timing and knob twiddling were very fine - particularly memorable being a long pause in front of the mike before belting out Hey! Mr Pharmicist! The band were at their charming best with only a little bit of face pulling from Ben, and Eleanor looking more severe than ever in unadorned black dress but as always with a glint of humour around the edges.

A particular highlight was a crackling malevolent extended version of Mountain Energei. It is always remarkable how they can turn shortish album songs into living, rising epics of sound and dismissive fury.

Blindness was as good as ever, the varying bass levels and scary synths continuing its journey into a more claustrophobic and impressionistic song rather than the traditional Fall bass stomp.

Encore was a fantastic Boxoctosis - easily taking the place of Big New Prinz as a stomping, violent crowd pleaser interspersed with the slightly delerious lines about nice flowers and little warriors. It was relatively sparse at first with just Mark doing vocal duties, then he whacked the bass back up (having turned it down previous) and Eleanor joined in with backing vocals and the whole thing took off. Mark handed the mike out and the nice chap at the front shared round the shouting into microphone duties.

A wonderful gig, one of the best I have been to for a long time, with just that weird dud bit in the middle.


Oh, and according to Assume, which works brilliantly live, those who don't assume are now not Kapitans but Rabbit-uhs (or possibly even fans of Aussie Rules team The South Sydney Rabbitohs).

Felix - deaf but happy

Yep, it was very very good, Blindness + Midnight In aspen the sntadouts for me.

Given my train back to Reading was leaving at 23:40, I was worried I'd have to disappear halfway through the set and pelt it back through town - but in the event only had to depart as Boxtosis started up. Having said that, I still overslept my stop!

Band and MES on top form.

I suspect he was sober because there 0 good pubs in that neck of the woods. I tried out four - flies, grime, Eddie and Stevo or Andy Gray on Sky Sports and no beer. Came out of each feeling more sober than when I went in.

And I'm not exactly sure the crowd were singing Frightened. There was one chap who was very enthusiastic, clapping his hands above his head and shouting Mark! Mark! a lot like a cheerleader. He sang a bit of Frightened drawing what looked like a wry smile from Smith.

And yes, Midnight in Aspen was very good indeed.

Great banner as well - that would do well for a tee shirt.

Felix

Mark again:
you missed the unrelenting boxoctosis?!!
Round and round it went, six? seven? eight choruses? a cross between a merry-go-round and a saw-mill

eeh, dear! youwanner be trying out the star. or the cricketer's arms. only five minutes down the road, and were absolute staples of my drinking last year.

anyway, this was my first fall gig and it was fucking cracking. yes, resist were utter utter shite, but that didn't excuse the dickheads loudly telling them so between songs. why not just go to the bar and shut up? WHERE ARE YOUR MANNERS. WHAT WOULD YOUR MOTHER SAY.
higlights for me were mountain energei (where the fuck did that rock come from?) and open the boxencore. tremendous. best bit of mes-tomfoolery was when he switched ben's amp off during "ride away" and then stood in front of it, not letting him play anything for the (admittedly short) course of the song. didn't look too pleased, that lad.

got an FHR poster and a sparta FC badge, went home very happy.

Because it's tiny & rammed full!

Roll on The Zodiac refit next year, when there'll not only be 2 bigger rooms, but also a lift for wheelchair access - full marks to the security staff for lugging no less than 3 w/c users up & down the stairs with such good humour last night

I don't have a recording, but interestingly someone from the Fall entourage was recording it to laptop from the sound desk, according to the engineer, so it may turn up in some form or another.

Excellent set - I would have liked a tiny bit more improvising occasionally, but we did get a lovely Aspen full of ad libs ("They never warned you about this, especially in the 18th Century". Cheers. That clears that up, then ). Highlights were Blindness in which Dave, local engineer & reggae enthusiast brought a little dub technique to the snare reverb, which worked very well, as Callsign mentioned.

Also, with one exception, I'd say the amp fiddling actually added to the effect, creating some good atmospherics.

Eleni is definitely the satar of the show now, her keys are sounding amazing (interesting how much more she can get out of a tiny little 3 octave synth, compared to the 4 large & identical sounding keyboards Resist use.) Yawanner especially had some superb Delia Derbyshire/Dr Who type sounds, very rich in overtones.

Box a surprisingly great closer, as I'd never much rated it before - went on for a number of weeks, it seemed. Apparently Mark had found "monsters" in his box tonight, if my ears didn't deceive me.

Oh, should say I enjoyed Oxford band Nought very much, tho it wasn't their best gig. Good math metal jazz fusion instrumentals, with the odd part that sounded liek the theme to Bergerac . Was a long way form into Resist, it must be said.

Great to meet some people from here, lovely bunch. Pity we didn't have more time to chat, but I really didn't feel so springhtly when my alarm went off at 6.30 this morning. Had a lovely meeting at 8.30...

must say i thought the keys were, for the most part, far too quiet. maybe it was where i was standing.

It's a very big room with a high ceiling, & often you'll find that something is perfectly audible in one area & hard to hear in another - always a problem there.

Ah, I see. It sounded like more than one person from where I was standing. An organised cohort in fact! Still, it brought a smile to my face so I thought I'd include it in the setlist.

When I think back to the gig, Blindness stands out, with the aforementioned dubby snare. Heavenly.

I couldn't hear much of Eleni's keyboards either. I agree that MES's amp-fiddling worked quite well; he wasn't doing it excessively, as far as I could see. Also, is it me or did the mike-stands not get their usual amount of attention?

Someone asked what time they were on - about 10:05 till 11:15.

I took some photos, but they're extremely dark and blurry. (Camera lessons required before next time I think!)

As for Nought - Jesus what a racket! Fair enough, they're obviously pretty good musicians, but the noise they were making just sounded grim and pointless to my ears. I amused myself by watching the faces of disbelieving spouses who'd been dragged along.

He sang Ragitan at Sheffield...

I remember back in the eighties on more than one occasion when confronted with an abysmal supporting band that it was possible to get rid of them by just shouting at them and making it clear they were not wanted: people power in action. Resist were the worst Fall support band I have ever seen (thats saying something!) and should have gone long before they did. Politely clapping only encourages them!! My mother would have joined in with the barracking, I feel.

The other support band Nought (as in "...out of ten") were local I think and went down well, although I couldnt see why: endless riffery (all instrumental) like a revisit from any number of early 70s "jazz/progressive" groups. Very reminiscent of the "roadie" band Henry Rollins used to send on before Black Flag, but there it had a purpose. Here it was just a bore. But a lot of people liked it.

Funniest bit was when MES went off first time through the wrong door and had a little dance with the stage sound guy; he then found himself in the moat between stage and throng and was escorted back to backstage area safely.

Good crowd apart from very irritating girl in long stripey sox who was keen on barging into people (drinks spilled here) and claimed to be pregnant to push her way to the bar.

It was a great gig as the above comments suggest; band/MES on top form. The venue needs to do something about the pathetically inadequate bar, though.

He sang Ragitan at Sheffield...

Well that would be it. My ears are terrible. I can never hear anything - and this morning it felt like my head had been filled with wax and ripped my tonsils out. Fuck that gig was loud.

But what is a ragitan? only thing I can find is some sort of doll.

Re Nought. I must admit when I first heard them that I thought - well they just keep going on in different directions (distrusting anything that went on for longer than two minutes) - but they are well worth persevering with, and can be absolutely mesmerising.

Resist, tho'. ooch ooch.

Felix

What happened to Heist? While I was waiting for the Forum gig to start back in May I got talking to their merchandise-seller and he told me they'd be playing the Fall tour in autumn. Did they get a better offer off the UK Subs?

Nought did the Camden Ballroom gig 3 years back and were very fine then. Unlike Dr Freak's Padded Cell, who caused mass movement towards bar and loos.

I think my ears are shot away too...it didnt actually seem so loud in the gig (very near the front), but my ears are still ringing 16 hours later

anyone remember World of Leather at was it the Brixton Fridge. I have never seen so much shit hurled at a band at a Fall gig. Give them credit, they did carry on. No one wanted them to, but they did, despite getting full glasses thrown at them, and quite a few hitting.

I don't approve... but it was fucking funny. And deserved.

Felix

Didn't the Fridge have a mesh fence fitted across the stagefront, for the safety of bands... an energetic crowd

hop!hop!hop!