Review: Hawkwind @ Blackheath, 7 June

[Carl Edlund Anderson]

     This is the review I posted to the Cambridge University Rock Society:

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     This review can be summarized briefly:

     It *rocked*.

     Now read on if you care to.

     This was the first debut of a substantially new line-up and many
people I went with were concerned that it was gonna blow.  These fears were
in vain.  It was probably the best HW gig I've seen--certainly the
heaviest.  One of my mates reckoned it was the heaviest HW had been since
Lemmy left the band.  I dunno if that's true for sure ... but it must have
been damn close.  There were several points where thought, "Damn.  Hawkwind
have evolved back into a primordial metal band."

Current lineup:

Dave Brock (of course): guitar (relatively lots of it), vocals, synths
Richard Chadwick: drums
Ron Tree: vocals, bass (and damn good bass it was, too)
Jerry Richards: guitar (gruesome wah and feedback abuse :)

     Jerry has played with them before and if definitely an excellent
addition.  His guitar style matches the band well.  Ron has been in there
as a vocalist since '95 and most of the concern was over how well he would
handle stepping into Alan Davey's bass shoes (Since Alan Davey was pretty
effing hot on bass).  The answer is--perhaps not as good as Alan, but all
things considered quite amazing.  HW has lost an excellent bass player who
liked synths and gained a very very good bass player who used to play in a
punk band called Bastard. :)

Set list:

ASSAULT & BATTERY/THE GOLDEN VOID
BLUE SKIN
STEPPENWOLF

     These were a little hesitant but good.

REPTILE VISION

     New song, and excellent.  After massive positive crowd response to
this completely new number the band really started to crank.

ASSASSINS OF ALLAH > SPACE IS THEIR PALESTINE > ASSASSINS OF ALLAH
LOVE IN SPACE

     "Love in Space" begin with a segment that was either a new intro or an
embryonic new instrumental number.  Either way, my jaw dropped.  It was
very heavy.  The song used to begin with meandering synths ... these were
suddenly obliterated by sledgehammer drums and massive riffing that would
have had Iommi reaching for his notebook.

AEROSPACEAGE INFERNO

     Thunderous.

> > SONIC ATTACK

     Kind of disorganized recital, but was rescued by some truly
*appalling* noises being coaxed out of the various instruments.

[ANOTHER NEW SONG]

     Which I remember little of except for more riffing and a spoken
interlude from Brock which was largely inaudible.  (Over all the mix was
not the best at the gig, but it rocked so much it didn't matter).

BRAINSTORM > THE CAMERA THAT COULD LIE > BRAINSTORM

     A mosh pit formed--no mean feat for a latter-day HW gig, though it was
a fairly young audience.  Probably the best version of "Brainstorm" since
the early 70s.  Fast, heavy and it took those three chords and slammed them
about six feet into your head.

     Somewhere in the middle of this a fire-eater dropped his torch on one
of the on-stage monitors and it burst into flame (to immense delight of the
audience).  It was then doused, producing enormous amounts of smoke (to the
even more immense delight of the audience, excepting those within about 10
feet of it :)


EJECTION
NEEDLE GUN

     Hawkwind were joined by original guitarist Huw Lloyd-Langton for these
(he had opened for them with an acoustic set which was not really memorable
except for a few HW covers like "Moonglum", "Rocky Paths", and "Hurry On
Sundown").  The result was fairly chaotic, but very loud and (as my sister
would say) _rockin'_.
     Brock's vocals had practically disappeared from the mix in Needle Gun,
which might have been just as well since it was not at all clear that
everyone knew where they were in the song :)  But the audience was going
nuts and no one cared--and they all managed to bring it crashing a
shrieking to a halt in good unison so what the hell.

     The audience was unquestionably demanding another encore and probably
would have got it but the lights went up and there it was.

     US summer and UK Autumn tours should be pretty fucking good.

Cheers,
Carl

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Carl Edlund Anderson                           "So that's Terra.  Oohwee,
cea20 at cus.cam.ac.uk                             look out wenchlings, here
http://wjh-www.harvard.edu/~canders/hem.html    come the Hawklords."
Dept. of Anglo-Saxon Norse & Celtic, Cambridge     -Lord Lemmy (Hawkwind)
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