Sonic Shellshock in Darkest Digbeth!
Here’s my take on last night’s Metamatic gig in Birmingham..
Flippin’ ‘eck – my eardrums are SHATTERED!
Firstly, I just wanted to say that it was great to meet more of the Metamatic Crew in the pub beforehand, and then later in the venue itself.
Mmm, the venue.. well, it was dark, a tad on the dingy side, and small. But nevertheless at 8.00pm we all shuffled together to be sonically assaulted by the brutal electronic sounds of the vileevils, who are the remnants of Pop Will Eat Itself. Kicking straight in with almost Prodigy like beats and synth, coupled with the odd chord of electric guitar, they delivered 30 mins of brain-rattling tunes, which included a rather different version of Joy Division’s ‘She’s Lost Control’. The parting piece was a lovely little song entitled ‘Mother F**kin’ Demon’! Just plain evil from start to finish, but I loved it! In fact I woke up with the tune in my head this morning! Not totally well received by all, I must admit, but the vileevils performance was seemingly appreciated by several pogo-ing chaps, obviously enjoying the PWEI content in their set.
After a short break, and time to realign my brain after the immense vibrations of the support act, it was time to welcome the part of the evening that we had all been waiting for. I managed to scrabble my way to the front, after being surrounded by a hoard of tall men who had completely blocked my view. And that will never do. The lights dipped and on walked Louis Gordon, followed by John Foxx to much welcoming applause and cheers. And then, the show began. And boy, it began with a punch, the deep resounding synth vibrating right through me as John and Louis went into ‘Film One’. I noticed a couple of people had fingers wedged down their ears at various points in an attempt to prevent permanent damage. And the show continued, Louis giving it his usual hyper-jerky-jumping around treatment, making the synths scream delightfully, and belting out backing for John, who himself was delivering an excellent vocal throughout. I was surrounded by a few people who obviously knew and loved Metamatic and, like myself were happily joining in with the finger clicking hand gestures of ‘click, click, drone’ during ‘Underpass’, and the finger pointing of ‘Touch and Go’. John appeared to be enjoying himself, smiling intermittently and sucking in those trademark cheeks of his! The encore began with the gentle sound of ‘Glimmer’ and ended on the totally mind blowing, and incredibly loud ‘21st Century’ (as John now sings). Both Louis and John having a good old jump around whilst belting out this big tune bringing this fantastic show to an end.
The crowd cheered and applauded at a seemingly grateful John and Louis, and in the words of John himself, just before he left the stage, ‘That’s Metamatic’!
I really enjoyed the night, albeit there was a distinct lack of crowd atmosphere at certain points and it was far too loud, to the point of it being uncomfortable at times. It didn’t stop there either, the DJ cranked up the tunes straight after Metamatic had finished, and you couldn’t hear a word anyone was saying. I seem to remember Louis and I dancing around and singing to Madonna’s ‘Into the Groove’ and Prince’s ‘Raspberry Beret’, and then proceeding to play air and table synth to ‘Trapped’ by Colonel Abrahams.
Unfortunately, John didn’t do any signing after the show, much to the disappointment of some fans who had bought the new CD’s, but it really wasn’t the venue for meeting and greeting.
Still, to see Metamatic performed live is a special event in itself, and I hope that John and Louis are enjoying performing it as much as I have been enjoying the shows.
Next stop Cargo……
Sarah
