Nostalgia in the crowd? Perhaps. Nostalgia on the stage? Never!
All decked out in black, but in completely different outfits (Colin with a suit coat for the time being, Graham in a short sleeve tee and wool hat, Margaret in a long sleeved shirt and Robert in a sleeveless shirt, all the better to show off his wingspan in) the group flanked the stage three wide with Gotobed almost hiding in the rear. If you couldn’t see him, you certainly could feel him, as his precise rhythms propelled the show. The point is not lost in this spare and cool presentation. Wire is serious business, no matter the decade. They may be parents with children old enough to get in the rock game but they are still the coolest parents you would ever meet.
“Out Time” starts us off a little tentatively until Robert’s cymbal banging takes hold and Margaret’s guitar rises nicely in the mix. Soon Colin is all power chords and simple leads – this show will become a clinic on how to play simply with real meaning – and we get out first taste of vocal interplay between Graham and Colin. “Mr. Marx’s Table” snaps to the beat and a wall of guitar. Snap, snap, snap, build, build, build = awesome. “Comet” comes on as a blaze of strums into the appropriate “and the chorus goes bang!” flourish. Our first old nugget is in the form of “Being Sucked in Again” which gets a seriously muscular workout. I am amazed that they have targeted older songs (of which I can be far too precious) that were often my least favorite tracks on the records and re-invented them as much more powerful beasts. “Mekon Headman” sees Gotobed putting those long pale arms to work and “Perspex Icon” blasts sputtering guitar bursts and Margaret’s sped up lead pushing things forward. Here is where the effort to play it like you mean it really shows and the arrangements crackle with energy.
“Advantage in Height” shows that they will be dipping into as many albums as they can muster and makes me visually miss Graham playing that crazy 80’s headless bass, as he did the first time I saw this in a live setting, but that mental picture is all that I miss. This version is a snapping and buzzing crackle that launches towards “The Agfers of Kodack.” This brings about the first instance of a minor light show (it had been house whites down on the darkened stage until now) and I instantly wish they hadn’t. Wire doesn’t need it. They are powerful without any assistance and standing up there “naked” as it were, quite suits them. “Silk Skin Paws” emerges mean and buzzing and they turn it into such a snarl that it will be nearly impossible to ever hear the recorded version again.
“All Fours” jitters right to the barked finish. “One of Us” oddly sounds slow in comparison to the set so far. It is still a pop gem and the drum and bass break affords Colin his first opportunity to do a little hop/dance before diving back in. “Boiling Boy” pulsates with an incessant throb and flickering high hat for Colin to move around before joining the throb. They pace and strum – pace and strum. Graham, lost in rhythm pulling up and down the frets. Colin, with his glasses at the tip of his nose staring at his guitar - as if willing the single chord to grow additional noise. Margaret shaking her shoulders with a crooked smile. Robert clicking along, as if half man and half machine, as they break apart one of my least favorite songs from their 80’s output and turn it into one of the highlights of the set. Astonishing.
“The 15th” brings on spectral lead from Margaret’s quarter. “106 Beats That” comes on like the burst of piss and vigor that it has always been. “I Don’t Understand” with it’s competing buzz of guitars and belted vocals closes out the proceedings with an appropriate shout. Encoring with “He Knows” (which I am not sure has ever been recorded) they get into a spacey drift and simple melody (“hypnotize me” they call out.) The lull only serves to make the urgent crackle of “Pink Flag” all the more powerful. For a band that treads in the abstract often, the song plays as far too timely. History never learned from. Colin makes me smile as he is playing with pure joy under his furrowed brow, a man too busy creating to be bothered with the traditional guitar training and Margaret is all distortion (very Bruce-like) and a huge grin (very un-Bruce.) Robert remains the very definition of precision.
The second encore kicks in “Lowdown” which is humorous following the band’s admonishment of calling out requests only to pull a song from their 1977 debut. It gets a justifiably cranky treatment, all for the better. “Underwater Experiences” (from Document and Eyewitness!) and its air raid guitars and sudden builds and twin shouted vocals, is an explosive joy.
The band make quick work to return once again and go about adding kapos to their guitars, leading Graham to declare this the “jazz bit” of the evening. What we get instead is “Circumspect” in an extremely tight form before Colin crouches down before scratching his guitar and leaping into “12XU” as if playing it for the first time.
The same way they approach every song.
Look. Listen. Learn.
Photos from the New York Seaport show by Rob Trucks
Dag Nasty released an awesome speedmetally cover of 12XU as a b-side to a the “Trouble Is” single in 88. Worth checking.
October 13, 2008 at 2:40 pmAnd Soulside covered “Ex-Lion Tamer” on their first album in 87. Wire gets a lot of love from DCHC
October 13, 2008 at 2:41 pmTons of old Dischord folks in attendance on Saturday (having Tone open will do that as well…) 12XU was a defining song around here in the 80s. Brian played it in Minor Threat before Dag Nasty (by the way - I think Trouble Is could be a hit if released today. Radio still didn’t know what to do with pop metal back then if it wasn’t a ballad.) Henry Rollins used to have the band Ex-Lion Tamer open for him all the time and Wire had them open the Ideal Copy tour. They were a cover band that played the first three Wire albums exclusively. Pretty good at it too. DC has always loved Wire and Wire has always loved DC.
October 13, 2008 at 2:49 pmboiling boy was the best! better than the album version. point when the snare kicked in was my favourite moment of the set.
October 13, 2008 at 5:23 pmi thought the concert suffered from poorly mixed, sub-par instruments. i know that may sound hypercritical however when you have a band with songs as minimalist as are wire’s… you can only erode so much of the sound before the entire production starts to sound tame. and it’s not to say that wire requires any sort of super hi-fi production it’s just that the 930 club gave them a generic rock and roll sound that left the guitars and arrangements sounding impotent.
October 13, 2008 at 10:27 pmI don’t know that the sound was perfect by any means and Graham seemed to be giving looks back to the board now and again but it was loud enough to justify ear plugs and an easy misconception about Wire as a live unit is that they will be a noisy affair - but even in the 70s the guitars weren’t so far out in front. On record, it’s the vocals in 12XU that push it to the edge and thats the case for the large majority of their efforts.
I thought they managed the most important aspect which is juggling two lead vocalists and allowing Margaret’s leads to ride a bit high in the mix (took a song to get this right though.) The part of the live presentation that sounded by far the best was Robert’s crisp drums.
Having seen them over several decades (and referenced in the review) I can safely say that the band has always taken a perverse pleasure in not treating guitars and amps as precious things. From the 80s headless self-tuning numbers to Colin’s pulling out a Line 6 Variax on Saturday. That’s a guitar that mimics the sounds of up to 25 different guitars with just the turn of a knob kids. Fun at home? Sure. But only Newman would play one on stage with a straight face. It matters little the actual guitar as Wire has always gotten unique sounds from their instruments through studio manipulation and at the 930 show I could see that software was determining the tones while the band were determining the notes and pressure as it were.
The difficult compromise in seeing sonic mavericks playing a set encompassing such a wide period is that they inevitably have to find a common ground and that was done in making everything a little more “rock” and less “strange.” When they were last here, they only played new material primarily and Colin didn’t even carry a guitar for much of the show and the “rock” sound was jarring and abrasive and shook the kids in the audience more so than this version with the aggression and pop trying to find an equal balance.
October 14, 2008 at 12:34 amI miss Bruce. A lot. Seeing them for their first 930 reunion tour was like having the baddess-assed grandad EVER on stage, glaring at people while delivering a withering guitar assault.
See also the 12XU 7″ they put out in 2001. The bside is…weird.
October 17, 2008 at 11:19 ami recorded this from the audience and the recording sounds great.
October 24, 2008 at 5:23 pm
As always, excellent write up. Now 12XU is stuck in my head, which is a good thing. It replaces West Side Story songs. Don’t ask.
October 13, 2008 at 2:19 pm