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EIGHTIES MATCHBOX B-LINE DISASTER A quick glance over the barriers at the setlist gaffer-taped to the floor confirms that this is going to be a special night. There's sixteen tracks on the list of which only half are the old favourites that we've been treated to over the last couple of years. This is the seventh or eighth time I've seen the 80's Matchbox B-Line Disaster (first time was supporting the Bellrays at Dingwalls), but there's a feeling of the "event" about this gig. The Fortress is a suitably blacker-than-batwings, subterranean venue which regularly hosts some of the coolest underground nights in town with Weatherall's "Rotter's Golf Club", Jarvis's Desperate soundsytem and the excellent "Kill All Hippies" all hosting wild nights here. The 200 of us who got our five quid tickets are packed in (although quite comfortably, thanks!) and being treated to an fairly restrained and eclectic DJ set from some of the Cooper Temple Clause. As the band take the stage the surge begins. Two new songs in and it's obvious that the blueprint remains the same but the sound has developed. More muscular and psychedelic, the twin guitars of Marc and Andy scrawling a familiar mess over the top of the redneck swamp rythymns. I predicted that it would take Guy about 5 minutes to start his customary walkabout but he beats me to it. Less than 3 minutes and he's already hanging from the camo-nets, screaming and barking into the moshpit's beaming faces. They know MEEEEEENTAWL when they see it. Thankfully he isn't so close when he loses his stomach contents a few songs later! All the old favourites seem to have entered a new dimension - belted out with even more ferocity and conviction than I've seen before. Chicken, Whack of Shit, Celebrate Your Mother - god, I love these songs! The medicine is going down so much better than it did in Brighton 2 months ago when EMBLD supported Jane's Addiction. Then, the PA was way too loud, the venue too empty and what little crowd there was, too confused for anything more than an unpleasant mess to result. Tonight with all sides of the equation coming together, we're taking it like good little boys and girls. Are the rest of you still not ready for a dose yet? SET LIST: Ice Cream, Clonk Chicane, Celebrate Ya Mother, I Rejection, Giant Bones, Whack of Shit, Temple Music, Turkish Delights, Morning Has Broken, Team Meat, Year of The Revert, Chicken, Psychosis Safari, Presidential Wave, Fish Fingers, Mister Mental. Richy [ January9th, 2004 ] |