NIK: ICU Xmas Party

[Jonathan Jarrett]

        Dear All,
                  as promised, ICU review... Steve can give you a better
setlist than I can, but the rest of it, as far as we the audience knew
anything, was something like this.

        The gig was at the LA2, where I had the unusual pleasure of being
at the same gig as a friend of mine, who was there only for the support,
David Devant and his Spirit Wife. He flatly refused to even entertain the
possibility of staying for the main act since, as he claimed, he needed to
eat, though given that it was him this seemed so heinously unlikely to
be a concern that I privately concluded that what was really driving him
away was that ICU were the sort of band of whom I am the only person he
knows who has heard.

        Anyway, both of us had to sit through the support support band who
were called Akira. This had not inspired me to confidence but in fact they
were better than they might have been, for four sixteen year olds wanting
to be somewhere between Nirvana and a kind of slow Pantera. They had
several songs which made me think that their idea of what they wanted to
do was very clear to them, and when and if their ability catches up with
their aspirations, assuming that by that point they remain friends, in
touch and the vocalist has got over Cobain (though, as I observed to
Kirsten, which of us has got over Cobain, really?), they may be pretty
good. I hope that they manage to get enough practice in to get a few gigs
bigger than that, they handled it well.

        David Devant I had very little idea of, and my friend'’s informing
that they were a Dadaist comedy band who played foolish rock told me
nothing. What they are, by my lights, is a fearsomely tight three-piece
playing from light balladry to quite intense old-style indie rock. Kind of
like the Hamsters only from Islington not Essex. The comedy angle didn'’t
strike me though the vocalist (a kind of weird cross between Neil Fallon
and Neil Tennant, with only enough of the former to keep him interesting,
the personality shifts and irony rather than the actual voice) and
guitarist was clearly taking the wry view of life rather than hang himself
as his world view suggested. They really were very accomplished as a
band. I got the idea that they all knew exactly what The Song was like and
how to make it, they were definitely three parts of a machine. I rather
liked the songs too, and may have to investigate. Kirsten was more
impressed than I was so she will probably do it for me however.

        Then at last ICU, the once-legendary punkadelic rock-and-rollers
of the dying days of the punk age. Inner City Unit were the last time I
saw them effectively a rhythm section and the rest of the band, and this
time at first they seemed to have solved that in the worst way, by dumbing
down to the drummer who is unfortunately still the weak link. But in fact
they were even at that point much better rehearsed. Nik was nervous and
Judge Trev seemed so as well though since he always looks as if the last
blow had already just fallen it'’s hard to tell. I felt that last time
they'’d winged it and beenamazed at getting away with it and this time
they were having to try harder and thought they couldn’t do it. Given the
which they should have put some of the more upbeat material in earlier in
the set to get us moving, which did take some time and they were watching
the non-responsive crowd with frozen horror for a few songs. Once they'’
broken through that however they were very good. Judge Trev was playing
his arse off, much more so than last time, Rick Welch (trumpet, some sort
of vocals, boogie-woogie dancing) likewise, and even Steve Pond (:-)) took
lead vocals and a solo on one number I didn't know, which I suspected was
his, possibly new, and sounded oddly like an attempt to write a decent
song on the basis of Technotronic's `No Limits' (which has of course been
done by Midnight Configuration but never mind that now). I didn't’ know
all the material, but what I could identify broke down like this:

Bones of Elvis (this was bloody good actually)
Cars Eat With Autoface (much heavier than the studio version)
?Virgin Love (Trev announced it with, "“This is a song about sexual
        relations with young girls."”)
Two Worlds (not so good this time)
Remember Margate Beach
Little Black Hen
?
Solitary Astrid
Cybernetic Love (well, this was where it got me and I was away. I
        think that may have helped them even as I was probably in the
        top four visibly reacting people. But it was great.)
Gas Money (top stuff, they're just a good time rock'n'roll band really
        aren't they?)
?
? (a new number from Trev'’s new solo album, slow balada, has not
        necessarily encouraged me to get that CD)
Raj Neesh (top banana)
World of LSD (much better than last time but still needs Mick Stupp)
Fungus Among Us (prefaced by a lengthy ramble from Nik about some new
        drug called GHB which he believes may be best avoided; included
        him claiming he didn'’t really do drugs so it may have been
        slightly tongue-in-cheek)
Watching the Grass Grow (dedicated by Nik to, well, me actually, must
        have been dancing or something, very good, long break section
        which Dino Ferrari (drums) actually survived just about intact)
? (Steve'’s `No Liimtss’ song)
? (was there a song here? My pen was dead by now but I thought they
        ended with something I knew...
In The Nude (classic as ever)

        There was no encore because of a curfew at the venue. Things they
did not do which surprised me by their absence: `Skinheads in Leningrad'’,
`Space Invaders', `Brainstorm'. But you know, we survived. Because from
`Cybernetic Love'’ on this was a band again, not just the people playing
songs it had been. I do want Mick Stupp back, so do they probably, but
when they play Dingwall’s early next year, barring personal disasters to
band-members I think it's safe to sat they'll be better than good.
Mention needs also to be made of the dancer, who was very good and
managed to convincingly convey everything from schoolgirl to gypsy doyenne
and could also dance (though the point of the I-Dog still eludes me), and
of the female vocalist and percussionist and “Commander Jim Hawkman”
(synth) both of whom could have been dispensed with with no loss to the
performance at all. Sorry, but it needs to be said. Dead weight to an
otherwise strong line-up (if you could get some speed into the rhythm
section... but I'’  lstop before I lose the good impression I want o
leave the reader with.)

        Nik and Rick were shaking hands afterwards but the security
cleared us all out, bastards, Nik was really friendly anyway. Collectors
will wish to note that the merchandising stall had not only the new
_Maximum Effect_ edition and the Bajina _Live in Hamburg_ CD but also all
the Captain Trip Deviants and Mick Farren re-releases (except _Eating
Jello_’ ,if they'’ve done that yet) and the Wayne Kramer/Pink Fairies CD,
and most other things in that line except actual Pink Fairies stuff
including 2 Steve Took CDs, and, furthermore (mighty drum-roll) Judge
Trev'’s n w_ ddo and M__n CD, and also , Kubano Kickas__o by Nik Turner’s
Fantastic All-Stars on CD lovingly packaged in plain card with the title
scribbled on in biro. But it'’s out. Beware ye all. This side of the
Hawknexus is active.

        Yours,
               Jon
--
        Jonathan Jarrett                Birkbeck College, London
                 jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk
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  "The large print giveth and the small print taketh away." (Tom Waits)