Adolescent dreams and the ghost of Tupac

[venta]

Brief comments, since it's bedtime:

Last time I went to see NMA, I commented that they'd seemed a little subdued. This time, I found myself trying to see the gig as it would appear to someone who'd never seen them before, who maybe didn't know the music that well.

What did I see ? A bunch of aging blokes, fronted by an almost cartoon aging rocker with wild, staring eyes and wild, staring teeth. The Zodiac's poor sound (and habit of turning it way up) rendered a lot of the guitars down to a muddy mess which hurt the ears and numbed the brain.

If I'd just blundered in, first time, to the gig myself would I have come home and raved about it ? Probably not, to be honest.

Leaving afterwards, I found myself reluctant to ask onebyone or wimble what they'd thought of the gig. As (I believe) people in the situation I'd been accidentally emulating, I didn't really want to have them confirm my doubts.

Because it's not the first time I've seen them, and even though they'd compiled the first two-thirds of their setlist out of songs I'm less bothered about, they're still the band I've been trotting round the country to see for more than ten years. Sure, seeing them is partly force of habit but to me the magic's still there.

New Beardy Guitar Guy (who probably has a name) seems to be making his impression, shoving extra bits of guitar-wank in all over the place. I'm not quite sure yet whether I approve. Nelson also seems to be beefing up his basslines, too, which can only be a good thing.

Surreal moment of the evening goes to Justin Sullivan managing to shove a vague rant about the state of the floor in the Zodiac into the middle of Poison Street.

Comments

[wimble.livejournal.com]

I don't my way around NMA. The only song they played that I recognised was Here Comes The War. Oh, and No Rest, although, for some reason, I'd never connected it with NMA: I actually wondered whether it was a cover when they played it tonight.

So. No, I wouldn't rave. But I'd put that down to the fact that I wasn't a bouncing little fanboy before I went. I enjoyed it (apart from the usual problems of the Zodiac: over heating, and that standing mostly stationary for two hours does my back in), and thought they'd done a good job.

Now, where can I find somebody to lend me a carefully selected "Best of" to educate me properly ;-?

[zotz]

The last time I saw them the sound was OK. They are, though, increasingly beardy.

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

Yeah, someone really needs to tell the Zodiac that louder doesn't mean better.

[liriselei.livejournal.com]

as someone who'd never seen NMA live before and doesn't know much of their stuff (i recognised two or three tracks), i thought they were bloody good and generally had a fantastic time. then again, i almost never see gigs anywhere other than the Zodiac/Wheatsheaf/Bully so probably wouldn't know decent sound if it jumped up and bit me.

what did you lot think of David R. Black ? i liked the music, but he was so pathetically grateful for our applause it made me want to punch him !

was hoping to talk to folks afterwards, but i turned my back to talk to the Sarahs and when i looked round you'd all vamooshed...

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

A bunch of aging blokes, fronted by an almost cartoon aging rocker with wild, staring eyes and wild, staring teeth.

This is fair comment, and I don't think that their instrumentship is anything unusual, for me NMA trade on a not precisely defined level of militancy. The "previously owned" appearance and wild, staring T-shirts actually helped with this, since Sullivan looks credible as an ageing activist rather than just an ageing rocker. But it does mean that only hearing Zodiac percent of the lyrics was the major limiting factor on how good they were. I can't really blame them for that though.

I tend to like people's recorded music better after I've seen them live anyway, but I probably should have seem them somewhere not the Zodiac. And when I recognise the tracks in future I'll probably think of the live performance as having sounded a bit more like that, and a bit less like an explosion in an amp factory. But as you say, the gig itself wasn't rave-inducing.