Tkt-bobrev.jpg (34691 bytes)  

BOB MOULD/MERCURY REV
London Forum, 29th October 1998

So no Scottish dates on this tour so if Bob won't come to Scotland, then Scotland must go to Bob. Having recovered from train-lag I feel able to share my thoughts on Bob's last ever electric show in the U.K. but first ...

I won't comment on Dark Star because we missed most of their set, so onto Mercury Rev. To be honest on hearing that Dark Star were on the bill, I was so tired that I wouldn't have minded, on entering the venue, if they had been a replacement for Mercury Rev. Fortunately they weren't.

First impressions were that this was a more subtle band than your average support, with keyboards to the fore and the guitars and bass drum turned down. This impression was confirmed throughout the set although pleasingly the songs, nine in total, were pretty varied. I've since discovered that the gentle opener is 'Holes' from their current excellent LP "Deserter's Songs" and I think that they played "Endlessly" and "Goddess on the Hiway" from the same LP. The only other song that I know they definitely played was Neil Young's "Cortez The Killer" although I suspect that "Car Wash Hair" was in there somewhere too. Yes the guitars got a bit noisier later on, but overall this was a subtle counterpoint to Mr Mould and turned out to be a fantastic start to the evening. Even Yvonne enjoyed them.

So Bob then. Unlike the Manics, there was no great tease in getting to the stage, rather when on-stage Bob seemed in no great to hurry to start. It turned out it was definitely the calm before the storm. As with Sugar (the only other times that I've seen Bob live and electric) the opening salvo contained four songs almost without time to draw a breath. "Moving Trucks" was great, an effective opener perhaps a shade faster than the album. Then it was straight into "Taking Everything" not my favourite track on the album but in this context pretty blinding. Then straight into a searing "First Drag of the Day", with the tempo cranked right up. "I Hate Alternative Rock" was the last of the opening volley with its brutal, basic riff just perfect to main the momentum. At last a pause before "Stand Guard" kept up the impressive start.

Thereafter things became a bit more mixed. "Classifieds" was pretty average as was "Hear Me Calling". "Art Crisis" and "Anymore Time Between" were the highlights of the second half of the set, but "Skintrade" was very disappointing and not a patch on the recorded version.

The closing four songs of the main set look great on paper, but disappointed in reality. "Lonely Afternoon" was one casualty of the speed it up approach which worked so well on things like "First Drag ... " whilst "Roll Over & Die" was very lacklustre. "Egooveride" and "Reflecting Pool" worked better but still didn't set the heather alight in the way the opening songs had.

On the tour board, some people criticised the sound at the venue and this could have been a factor, but then why was it fine at the start and fine for the encores? Ah yes the encores.

If the spark seemed to be missing in the second half of the set it was back with a vengeance for the encores. "Disappointed", never my favourite to be honest, was BLISTERING and then "Hanging Tree" was immense. The band left the stage again but before the feedback from "Hanging Tree" had finished they were back for the feelgood encore, a mighty "See A Little Light", which unlike "Lonely Afternoon" didn't suffer from the less subtle approach, and finally "Man In The Moon" which sent chills up this particular spine.

So very fine, but not quite as mind-blowing as we might have hoped. Perhaps a little more instrumental variety would have helped, as I felt that the second guitar probably muddied the waters a bit in the second half of the set. I'd also forgotten that Bob's vocal lines live are often different from the recorded versions. This makes spot-the-song fun, you know the words, you know the riff but what the hell is it? ("Hear Me Calling" was only identified the following night with the lyrics in front of me). It's also a bit funny that the highlights often aren't the songs that you would expect. Anyway, here's to the live album, hopefully with some of the songs not aired in London.

Set List

1. Moving Trucks 2. Taking Everything 3. First Drag Of The Day 4. I Hate Alternative Rock 5. Stand Guard 6. Classifieds 7. Hear Me Calling 8. Art Crisis 9. Anymore Time Between 10. Skintrade 11. Eternally Fried 12. Roll Over and Die 13. Lonely Afternoon 14. Ego-override 15. Reflecting Pool

E1 a) Disappointed b) Hanging Tree

E2 a) See A Little Light b) Man In The Moon

[Bob Mould Index]  [Mercury Rev Index]