HW : Edinburgh gig

[J Strobridge]

gingoblin at EASYNET.CO.UK writes:

> Did anyone else at the show think that the bass was almost inaudible? The
> video I got of the Chicago show has really heavy, loud bass, the way it
> should be, so I couldn't help but notice that it just wasn't there in
> Edinburgh... or was it just me?!!

Edinburgh came close to being a disaster - I did enjoy most of it (which
suggests that the band played well despite the awfulness of the venue,
and the sound and the early start) but the place was much too small, the
overall sound was diabolical - Richard Chadwick, some keyboards,
the vocals (which were clear!) and a dense fuzz were about all that
were really audible; the strobes shone directly into your eyes
downstairs and any atmosphere was completely lost if you went upstairs
to the balcony - I have never before been to a gig where you were
blinded by the light of strobes reflecting off the foreheads of
the audience........

The set starts slowly - Ron Tree's voice lacks the intensity needed
to convey the menace of Warriors but for many of the audience the fact
that Hawkwind were doing the track at all was more than sufficient -
this is very much a 70s nostalgia tour for most of the first part of the
set which is great if they can get the sound right but it's not exactly
the liveliest of sets.  It's heavy and slowish (even with Hassan I
Sahba in the middle of it since Capt. Rizz has turned the lighter, more
fluent Space Is Their Palestine into a reggae jive track) right up until
Love in Space.   This also starts slow but is the most lyrical of all
their tracks and has a good middle section and from then onwards the set
really winds up.    Sonic Attack (if the sound is bad) blurs far too
much with Aerospaceage Inferno (the audience is usually cheering wildly
by that point and miss the start) but in Glasgow with a MUCH better
sound - that is a good venue, I hope they don't close it! - Sonic Attack
worked very well indeed, it's the first time I've enjoyed it properly in
its current form.

Reptoid Vision, as an encore, again starts badly but has a good middle
section  - this is the one time I thought that Capt Rizz made a positive
impact - with Ron Tree in his alien mask and Rizz doing reggae chants -
this merged very much better than his attempts to do this with some of
the older material earlier in the set.

Potentially the set is excellent but there is something wrong with a
sound that is so loud and dense that it is impossible pick up the
lyrical melody lines or even the bass riffs that you can *see* are being
played but can't distinguish.   Whether this is Hawkwind's fault or
whether it's the sound systems or whether it's the size of the venues
(too small) I can't tell.  Perhaps they have sacrificed subtlety for
sheer impact density of sound but at their worst Hawkwind are sounding
no better than a cover band version of themselves.   However, I hasten
to say that when you can hear them they are playing well - Jerry Richard's
guitar sounds like Brock used to, Ron Tree plays a fast and lively bass,
and Richard Charwick holds the whole band together with his incredible
drumming - he must be exhausted at the end of the evening!    So I don't
think it is the band - but there's something not quite working out and
so however well they are playing they are good, sometimes excellent, but
occasionally disappointing this time around.


> Incidentally, I phoned up the Garage in Glasgow a wee while ago to find out
> what time HW were coming on, and it was Ron that picked up the phone (maybe
> earning an extra few quid as stand-in secretary!)... so I told him about the
> bass... he said he'd sort it out for tonight, so let's see!

Thank you for that - I thought Glasgow was MUCH superior to Edinburgh in
that respect and enjoyed it the more.

jill

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J.D.Strobridge at ed.ac.uk                         eset08 at holyrood.ed.ac.uk
                                                ELIJSA at srv0.arts.ed.ac.uk
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