I wanted to show you something today, only to find I have no copy of it! An email has been sent to the OHM editor, I wonder whether it will turn up. So, here's something small from OHM for you: scholars of this site may wish to trace the change from the 1st person singular to plural in my reviewing style over the past 6 years, there may be a doctorate in it.
CLINIC/ THE ARCHIE BRONSON OUTFIT, The Zodiac, 4/7/04
I see Dr. Feelgood played by mendicant chimps...which means I see The Archie Bronson Outfit playing thier neanderthal blues boogie. In the dim light of a novelty swan-shaped lamp they plough their simple furrow: imagine a backwoods Ten Benson, or a Kings Of Leon made entirely of dirty breezeblocks, and you get the idea.
Whilst not revolutionary the effect is quite powerful, morphing from ratcheting blues blunder to slug disco and beyond. Worsth 30 minutes of anybody's time, though perhaps not too much more.
If you don't know by now, Clinic deal in all the simple trash of rock history: lo fi rhythm 'n' blues, pre-Beatles pop, VU drone and electro crud, all rolled together in pounding 2/4 rhythms. Somehow, though, tonight's gig doesn't hit the spot.
I don't want to give them a bad review as I can't put my finger on what was wrong - it wasn't the performance, or the sound, and I don't think it was my ears, but last time they played here Clinic produced some of the most frightening and enthralling music in Britain, whilst tonight they were simply entertaining.
Maybe it was the overwrought op art video projections, which were far less effective than the dusky spotlight and triumvirate of oscilloscopes that greeted us two years ago. If you'd never heard of Clinic, I'm sure this gig was beautiful, but to the old admirers amongst us it lacked something. Only the final track of the main set, which locked Philip Glass in a tiny Casio-filled roadhouse, really hit the spot. As Roy Walker said, "It's good, but it's not right".
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment