This page is a running tally of all the concerts I've been to - half to inform you as to who's great, mediocre, or shitty live, and half to remind me where I've been (you know how the mind starts to go...). So enjoy!
This might well be the ultimate double bill of the year - Nebraska's The Faint (Omaha??) and NYC's Radio 4. They've been touring the UK for the past month or so as double headliners, swapping positions each night and bringing fans of both into complete hysterics over the "headline" spot for that night.
Tonight was Radio 4's chance to end the night, but first we had to endure Parva (but I must admit, as terrible as they are, at least they'd improved from the last time I'd seen them).
The Faint came on next, starting with the creepy slow builder, "The Conductor", gradually bringing up the synths until the evil was practically dripping from the ceiling. They played most of Danse Macabre and a handful of songs off Blank-Wave Arcade, and had the crowd in a state of frenzied dansing (sic) from minute one. Every single band I'd loved in my teen years came back blended with all my current electro favourites in the form of The Faint on stage - Primal Scream, Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, bits of Fischerspooner, and generally everything dirty and evil you shouldn't like but just lurrrrve anyway. Complete highlights were "Glass Danse", "Worked Up So Sexual", "Agenda Suicide", and the fists-in-the-air "Your Retro Career Melted".
I haven't been this excited about a gig in MONTHS, and I haven't bought a cd at a gig in YEARS (I picked up their second album, Blank-Wave Arcade). So I was in complete post-coital bliss when Radio 4 came on.
If they'd been playing on their own on any other night, I would've hailed them as new saviours. But as that title was already taken for the night and my mind just kept wanting to hear more Faint at every opening note, so, shamefully, the whole performance passed me by. I recognized nearly all the songs as being from Gotham!, but they just didn't grab me the way their predecessors had. And to be honest, I'm not sure anyone could've.
Summary:
The Faint - in a year where I hadn't seen Fischerspooner, it'd be gig of the year. trembling hands down.
Radio 4 - admirable performance with a fantastic bassist.