Its been a quite unbelieveable run of gigs this summer - a sensational summer of sound. But for the most part its been dominated by old-sters or re-formed, formerly broken up bands. There's been the Supergroup of former members of now broken up bands - Them Crooked Vultures; there's been the come-back-from-retirement oldster - John Cale from Velvet Underground; and there's of course been ACDC who I'm not sure if they ever formally broke up, but you have to wonder if maybe they should!
Three other bands I've seen lately also blur those lines. Sometimes a band isn't broken up, they just stop being relevant. While they keep recording, you're oblivious to them and have moved on. Of course, if you've never heard of a band and then you see them - they are as good as a brand new band for you. For some, the experience of playing together again is a thrill and enhances the perofrmance. For others, re-uniting can remind everyone why they broke up in the first place!
- Pavement last night at The enmore in Sydney was the greatest of surprises. All I knew about them was that they were Blur's favourite band. Contempories of the Seatle Grunge scene, their sound seems to vary (for me anyway) between The Thrills, The Lemonheads and Nirvana. They broke up in 1999, seemingly in that "we've grown up now and need to get proper jobs" kind of tragedy. It transpires that Guitarist Scott Kannberg is getting married in Melbourne and thought the old "hey, lets get the band back together guys," was a great way to solve the big cost problem. So the wedding in Melbourne is right after the Australian leg of the tour. His fiancee was in the audience and the whole gig had the feel of being part of the wedding celebrations. Whats more the band were having more fuin playing together again than the crowd - and that was quite evident. They played a two hour set, 30 minutes of that an encore. Sensational night which I thoroughly enjoyed. Welcome back Pavement!
- Jane's Addiction were a band I went to see as part of a 2-leg gig-swap with a mate (the other being EATBM below). I had no knowledge of a band I was given to believe was somewhere between The Red Hot Chilli Peppers and The Smashing Pumpkins. Discovering the legend that is the playful, the creepy and the extremely eccentric Perry Farrell was a revelation. Jane's Addiction are all LA and you could have been forgiven for thinking you were in The City of Angels as the ornate and baroque performance evolved - which included a huge backdrop naked women and scantily-clad women joining Farrell in suggestive frolics. The animosity between Farrell and Bassist Eric Avery - the cause of the initial split in 1991 - was palpable to those in the know throughout the show apparently and it won't surprise many that after re-uniting the 'classic' lineup nearly 20 years after their first break, Eric Avery announced on Twitter that he was leaving the band after the Australian Tour ended. (I can see Farrell could test the patince of a saint!) In prep for the show I bought their recent album "Strays" - which I loved, but of which they played exactly none on the night! So I enjoyed the night entirely musically blind but had a ball all the same. I now can play very little else! Here's a taste of the show's finale, "Jane Says":
- Echo & The Bunnymen was also a tour laced with drama. They too have been through various splits and reformations over the years and only vocalist Ian McCulloch and Will Seargeant remain. That would also have been at The Enmore except that a few days before the gig it obviously became clear to the organisers that they couldn't fill it! The gig was cancelled and rescheduled a week later at the cosier Sydney Metro. EATBM are certainly of that "still recording but you wouldn't know it" ilk but I picked up their most recent album, The Fountain, which was a delight and I thoroughly enjoyed and is just like the "old stuff". When Ian McCulloch took the stage for my first sighting of him in real life, I realised Liam Gallagher's stage presence is a complete impersonation. It was great to see someone smoking on stage like the olden days. As the performance reached its crescendo - via all the old classics including "Lips like Sugar" and "The Killing Moon" together with a splattering of the new stuff like "I think I need it too" - the band came on for the obligatory encore and one track reached a quiet pause, one member of the audience took the opportunity to shout in perfect Ocker nasal tones: "where the fuck were yous last week?"
I've still got The Pixies, Dead Weather and potentially even The Cult to go!