Hard to believe that over three months has past since I saw the FLAs ring in the New Year at The Village. However, enough for now about why this blog is a public means of supporting my defective memory! Arriving a tad too early, as it turned out, I was momentarily startled that the band would be playing to the proverbial two men and their dog. Fortunately, the crowd had built up nicely by the time the Apes did come on. Indeed, as would become obvious later on, they really were there to see the support act and not the Welsh headliners Future of the Left.
The irony of this, of course, is that two-thirds of Future of the Left were also two-thirds of Mclusky. The latter are a band that Fight Like Apes pay tribute to at every gig with their cover version of Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues. Some might twist that one back around, though, and say that the apprentice has now become the master…
After a slightly sloppy start, the Apes got down to business, mixing up huge favourites (already) like Jake Summers with some of their new material. It was my first time hearing the latter and I thought that there were a couple of promising ones in there. It was also good to see that the band generally looked less startled to be receiving popular acclaim and were prepared to really let it rip on a few songs. This included the aforementioned Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues, which seemed to carry that little bit more emotional impact on the night. Indeed, the whole performance was an exercise in joie de vivre.
Immediately afterwards, my instinct was to describe it as the best that I have seen the fledgling band give so far. Twenty-four hours later and I would conceed that the Whelan’s gig last Autumn still remains the one to top. That said, for this show, the band had lacked the benefit of a warm-up act to ensure that the audience would hit the ground running when they came on. Accordingly, to be feeling so good about life at the end of it was a credit to them.
A fine band, if you have not guessed so alreafy!
A few more words are warranted then on Future of the Left. To be honest, there was a steady stream towards the door throughout their set. Moreover, they did not help themselves with a fairly uninspiring performance until the last three songs of the night. This was when they finally came alive and got the remaining audience going with some good fast rhythms and a novelty ending that involved the stage being partially dismantled whilst the band kept playing. Future of the Left could be a good live band, but they just do not seem that bothered by it all just now. At least it was only ten euro in and came with a fine support band included.
Filed under: Gigs, Music | Tagged: Fight Like Apes, Future of the Left
That is a magnificent title for a song!
Yeah! FLAs are no slouches either when it comes ot names. Their first two EPs are called “How Am I Supposed to Kill You If You Have All the Guns?” and “David Carradine is a Bounty Hunter Who’s Robotic Arm Hates Your Crotch” respectively!
“Future of the Left could be a good live band, but they just do not seem that bothered by it all just now. At least it was only ten euro in and came with a fine support band included.”
I would have to disagree with that. If anything FOTL spent an hour and a half illustrating exactly why Fight like Apes will remain a support band for the forseeeable future. This was my second time to see FLA, the first being last year at Hard Working Class Heroes, and it’s telling that on each occasion the highlight of their set has been their Mclusky cover. They have energy and great stage presence but not quite the songs to back it up. They weren’t helped by a muddy sound that I had put down to the limitations of the venue but which turned out to be more caused by the limitations of the band as FOTL sounded fantastic. Their set was probably the best I’ve seen since Deerhunter in Whelans back last year and is up there with the Battles and Boredoms gigs as my favourites of the past 12 months.
Fair enough comment re FOTL. Thanks. Won’t be the first time that I have had a diametrically opposite view of a gig to someone else!
BTW, was it really 90 minutes long? I had started on a pint when they came on and had some of the next one still to go when they finished. Man, I must be getting slow!
There is no doubting the imperfections in FLAs’ sound. However, that is really not the point of what they are about! What you say about energy and stage presence is the joie de vivre that I speak about above. The crowd reaction to them is half of what their show is about.
True and to be fair I should have mentioned that I had a blast all the way through Fight Like Apes set. They put on a show that very few Irish bands can match at the moment. I’ve been impressed by them ever since I saw them come on stage at HWCH last year when May Kay took a swig from a bottle of beer, tilted her head back, sprayed the stage with beer and launched in to a song! I just find it hard to understand why anyone would spend €10 on a ticket, stay for the support band (who were, admittedly, fun), get fired up and then leave before the main act! Especially as they were a band that even FLA were hyped about seeing. I dunno, some people! I don’t know about you but my drinking rate was definitely effected by the fact that it was a Crudweiser-only night.
Well thanks for a reasoned response to a differing opinion, sometimes the Interweb can be a dark and scary place!
No worries mate. I certainly do not want toadying comments!!
Was on the Uncle Arthur’s, actually, but it was a tad rough too. Unless it can’t be helped, I only drink it these days in specific bars…
Missed HWCH last year thanks to my ruddy job. However, I was in Whelans for their next Dublin outing a few weeks later and that was class too. Saw them again on NYE, as I say above, although I was a little worse for wear that evening!
We had exactly the same feeling about so many punters leaving the show. However, I also noticed that many were couples and that may have had something to do with it!!
Whoops! I may have been one of those couples… Lousy girlfriend, knew she’d ruin my night somehow. In my defense I brought her along to try to pawn her to one of the bands to get backstage. Valuable lesson learned = must…get…hotter…girlfriend… Aw well, I’ll try again at the Japanese Music thingy next Tuesday in Whelans.
If you’re reading this Helen, I’ve hidden all the knives and changed the locks.
Ha! Was easier to barter like that in the old days alright! Now everyone has standards!