The Fall @ Under The Bridge – 11th June 2014
Under The Bridge (or to be precise, under Chelsea FC’s East Stand) is the chosen venue for Mark E Smith and the latest and arguably the most settled incarnation of The Fall to unleash their uncompromising and abrasive brand of Rock n Roll to a fanatical crowd who clearly can’t get enough of the enigmatic ‘Hip Priest’ and the latest line up of this ever prolific band.
The Fall in its various guises and under the leadership of the dissident MES have released an incredible 30 studio albums. Their longevity and freshness in sound is arguably down to MES’s squad rotation policy, which must be the envy of any premier league manager. Smith’s policy of firing followed by hiring has allowed The Fall to continuously evolve and remain contemporary, and to keep producing interesting and sometimes inconsistent new music for their devoted fan base. This is quite refreshing in an age when so many bands whose talents have long since gone resort to the easy bet of releasing reissues, greatest hits and box sets.
In musical terms nostalgia means nothing to MES and The Fall have no reason to plunder their back catalogue to please their fans. Thankfully they made no apologies for playing by and large their later out put last night, which consists of material drawn from their latest album Re-Mit and EP The Remainderer.
It would be fair to assume that a career spanning 30 albums Fall devotes would be in for a long night. However, this show was a surprisingly short affair that just shaded the 60-minute mark. The crowd was treated to a blisteringly loud set by a tight and focused band despite the incoherent and shambling appearance of MES.
MES is an oddly charismatic front man and it is hard to take your eyes off him, as you never quite know what he is going to do on stage. Tonight was no exception and despite his nonchalant and contrary stage presence he still managed to create near hysteria, with the heaving crowd at the front to such an extent that some fans even jumped on stage only to be greeted by over zealous bouncers, and an indifferent leader.
His antics on stage almost diverted everyone’s attention away from the band, as he casually sauntered around the stage, knocking the drums over, turning up the speakers, and even allowing a fan to gate crash the stage and take over on vocal duties. It would be fair to say that MES is not the greatest traditional vocalist you will ever hear, and last night this was apparent as he slurred and barked his way through the songs. However, a lack of melody does not matter with such a strong stage presence and watching him walk round the stage and doing his best to interrupt the flow of the band was compelling evidence that there is no one in music quite like Mark E Smith.
The Fall had 2 drummers on stage last night and the band were aggressively loud. Smith’s wife Elena Poulou is a long term Fall member and her work on the synth was impressive despite hubby Smith’s attempts of trying to distort the noise of the synth by turning the speaker behind his wife up full blast. It was a wonder how the band managed to put up with Smith’s antics on stage; however, they were completely unfazed and delivered a deafeningly accomplished performance.
Songs from the new EP The Remainder featured heavily and Amorator! Mister Rode, Remembrance R and Remainderer were all well received, however, the biggest cheer came when the band played Psykick Dancehall. As brilliant as this tune is it has to be said it was not delivered particularly well last night and it felt like the band was going to grind to a halt at any moment. Psykick Dancehall sounded out of place to some extent amongst all the later out put by The Fall, and it more than justifies Smith’s decision of opting to play the latest material instead of the tried and tested method of rolling out the classics from a bygone era.
The Fall are often unlikely to win many new fans from their live performances let alone their recently recorded output, but their hard core following were more than satisfied with what they witnessed last night. The gig felt a little too short at 60 minutes, however, is it not better to leave the crowd wanting more? Smith is still a strangely compelling frontman and comes across as a disheveled and uninterested performer, which for some strange reason makes him an even more alluring character, and even after all these years in The Fall, Smith is still engaging, witty, provocative and brilliantly outspoken.