Post by South-Punk Admin on Feb 1, 2009 23:37:50 GMT
I was at The Shepherds Bush Empire on Friday night (30.01.09) for The Buzzcocks 'Another Bites' tour, with support by The Lurkers. I have to say what an inspirational evening! Both bands played on full blast and I can confirm that Steve Diggle's recent quote about him being more on fire now than 30 years ago is true!
The Lurkers Arturo Bassick has transmogrified into a great frontman and has really kept the spirit of the band alive. He spoke about the brilliance of Pete Stride's songwriting, simultaneously acknowledging that although he simply didn't want to do it anymore, he (Arthur) did and wanted to keep the music alive and blast, and blast they did. I particularly liked their stirling run though of 'Pills' as well as 'I'm on Heat', 'Ain't Got a Clue', 'I Don't Need To Tell Her', 'Shadow', several others and my favourite of theirs, ' New Guitar in Town'. The Empire audience were really responsive and it was great seeing the band playing so well.
The Buzzcocks tonight were marking the anniversaries of their 'Another Music in a Different Kitchen' and 'Love Bites' albums by performing them in their entireties (plus several more songs for the encores!) and from start to finish it was truly electric. Power, passion and a real love of their music came through. The capacity crowd knew every nuance, every note and phrase of every song and sung along accordingly. Incredible. The highlights were the entire show really, but hearing a spectacular 'Moving Away From the Pulsebeat' (a personal favourite) an incendiary 'Autonomy' and blitzkrieg 'Orgasm Addict' really nailed it...brilliant!
The whole band, and Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle in particular seemed to be really enjoying the show, and it was wonderful seeing them go from one classic to the next, each new song building on the previous song's energy. It's easy to forget at times just how many great songs the band have written, and hearing them all played so well was truly uplifting. I remember a Patti Smith gig a few years ago that I went to where her band had just played a transcendental version of 'Pissing in River' and she said how their performance of that song was getting better all the time and they were getting to the heart of it now, and I'd say this about the Buzzcocks. They were always great, but now they're getting even better if that's possible! Incredible!
The Lurkers Arturo Bassick has transmogrified into a great frontman and has really kept the spirit of the band alive. He spoke about the brilliance of Pete Stride's songwriting, simultaneously acknowledging that although he simply didn't want to do it anymore, he (Arthur) did and wanted to keep the music alive and blast, and blast they did. I particularly liked their stirling run though of 'Pills' as well as 'I'm on Heat', 'Ain't Got a Clue', 'I Don't Need To Tell Her', 'Shadow', several others and my favourite of theirs, ' New Guitar in Town'. The Empire audience were really responsive and it was great seeing the band playing so well.
The Buzzcocks tonight were marking the anniversaries of their 'Another Music in a Different Kitchen' and 'Love Bites' albums by performing them in their entireties (plus several more songs for the encores!) and from start to finish it was truly electric. Power, passion and a real love of their music came through. The capacity crowd knew every nuance, every note and phrase of every song and sung along accordingly. Incredible. The highlights were the entire show really, but hearing a spectacular 'Moving Away From the Pulsebeat' (a personal favourite) an incendiary 'Autonomy' and blitzkrieg 'Orgasm Addict' really nailed it...brilliant!
The whole band, and Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle in particular seemed to be really enjoying the show, and it was wonderful seeing them go from one classic to the next, each new song building on the previous song's energy. It's easy to forget at times just how many great songs the band have written, and hearing them all played so well was truly uplifting. I remember a Patti Smith gig a few years ago that I went to where her band had just played a transcendental version of 'Pissing in River' and she said how their performance of that song was getting better all the time and they were getting to the heart of it now, and I'd say this about the Buzzcocks. They were always great, but now they're getting even better if that's possible! Incredible!