Hugee Thanks to ianmcd for sharing his recording on Dime. Excelent sound.
RECORDING:
Type: Audience master, recorded 5 metres back from the suspended left-hand
side PA stack.
Source: Factory-matched pair of Schoeps CCM 41V microphones (DINa mounted) ->
Marantz PMD661 recorder with Oade Concert Mod
(-18 dB gain/44.1 kHz/24 bit WAV)
Lineage: Audacity 2.0.3
* Applied variable amplification across recording for consistent
listening experience.
* Added fades.
* Split tracks.
* Converted to 16 bit.
-> FLAC (compression level 8) [libFLAC 1.2.1 20070917]
Taper: ianmacd
Original NOTES:
A four date European tour? OK, it's five dates if you include the low key gig
in Corby that kicked things off, but still.
Not that I'm complaining, mind you. With so few European dates scheduled, you
have to be pretty lucky to find yourself living close to one of the chosen
locations. And whilst Antwerp is not exactly around the corner for me, it's a
doable 150km drive that doesn't require an overnight stay.
In spite of that, I nearly miss the gig altogether, due to an oversight on my
part. Whilst I hadn't forgotten that I had a Killing Joke gig coming up
some time soon, I had forgotten to add it to my gigging calendar, so there was
nothing to remind me of when it was.
Were it not for having seen the recent postings of the first three nights of
this short tour to DIME, I would not have felt the urge to check the date of
my own upcoming gig. When I did look into it Sunday afternoon, I discovered
that the gig would be happening the very next day. If the uploader of those
three gigs had been a day later with his recordings or I had not been looking
at my DIME RSS feed that afternoon, I would almost certainly have missed a gig
by one of my all-time favourite bands. That's what I call serendipity.
Anyway, I leave the house in time to run into rush-hour traffic at a couple of
black spots along the route, but still make it to the venue in time for the
doors to open.
A large part of the journey time to and from Belgian gigs always seems to be
accounted for by the awkwardness of getting into and out of the host city.
Brussels is particularly bad, a fact I was reminded of last month, when I
drove to the Forest National to see Sigur Rós.
Tonight is a different story, however. The venue, a new one to me by the name
of Trix, is located just off the Antwerp ring-road. Two right turns and a
kilometre along the Noordersingel bring you right to its front door. Not only
that, but you can park right there on the street for free. Well done, you
Flemish.
I collect my gear from the boot of the car and exchange my paper ticket for a
wristband at the box-office. That leaves just enough time for dinner, which is
a rather grand word for the 'braadworst' I pick up from the lady in the snack
van outside the venue.
And there you immediately have the downside of being at a venue located just
off the motorway: there's nowhere normal to eat; just this van selling
sausages and hamburgers. To be fair, though, it's a good sausage and I enjoy
it. Anything would do, though, really. I just don't want to have to go hungry
all evening.
The doors open and we file inside. I head straight for the main hall to survey
the evening's working environment. I've never been here before and know
nothing about the place, so I need to get a quick look at the PA and its
height above the ground in order to be able to accurately aim my microphones.
With that given the once-over, I head downstairs to the toilets and find that
I'm in one of those establishments that charge you not just to take on fluids
at the bar, but also to discard what remains of them again afterwards. I pay
the ferryman, grab a wine gum from her bowl (with traces of piss from at least
half a dozen punters, I shouldn't wonder) and head into a cubicle to set up.
With doors at 19:30, the venue hasn't allowed itself much time to get people
inside for the first band, the Essex-based Hounds, who come on stage at 19:45
sharp. I've only been in position by the PA for a few minutes when the lights
go down for them.
After half an hour of animated guitar thrashing from Hounds and a short break,
it's the turn of Jayce Lewis.
Mr. Lewis hails, as the astute amongst you might suspect from his surname,
from Wales. The other thing I notice about him is that he likes to say 'fuck'
a lot, as in "Belgium, make some fucking noise!"
The exhortation alone is quite funny, for reasons I can't quite put into
words, but I'm doubly amused when the collective noise that Belgium manages to
muster in response to this clichéd rock baiting turns out to be more of a
half-hearted whimper than a growled affirmation.
It's unabashed fish-and-chips metal with all of the trappings, such as song
titles like 'Wrath'. I wouldn't be surprised if were some songs in there about
concepts such as sacrilege and sacrifice, too, but discerning the lyrics is
impossible, should you even feel inclined to make the effort.
Although neither support is going to have me rushing to their web site to find
out when they're next playing, they each sounded good here tonight. That bodes
well for Killing Joke's sound, which, in my lengthy experience, isn't
something that can be taken for granted.
The chaps come on at 21:30 and start things off slowly with 'Requiem'.
This has been advertised as a singles tour, but I'm surprised to find how
familiar the set-list feels. It's been a long while since I've heard 'Money Is
Not Our God' and 'The Beautiful Dead' performed live, but everything else
sounds so familiar.
The band are obviously in good spirits and having fun up there, which makes it
all the more surprising how disappointingly short their set tonight turns out
to be.
A few supporting facts for the train-spotting trivia fans amongst us:
On the first night of the tour, at the small Zombie Hut in Corby, the band
played for 100 minutes. The next night, at the Hammerfest festival in Wales,
they do 76 minutes. On to London, the third night of the tour, where they play
for 95 minutes.
That brings us to tonight, the fourth gig of five, where Killing Joke play a
measly and frankly inexcusable 78 minutes; and I'm being generous by including
the encore break in their total.
What the fuck? It's a repeat of the experience at the Melkweg in April of last
year, about which I wrote:
"After just 80 minutes, they leave the stage. It's all slightly odd."
I have no complaint with the quality of what was performed, but I'm left
feeling distinctly shortchanged by the quantity. I'll take quality over
quantity any time, yes, but it would be so nice to experience the magic
combination of both from a band that I know can deliver on a good night; and
this was shaping up to be a good night.
So Corby and London both received two songs more than we get tonight. For us,
no 'Tension'; no 'Follow The Leaders'; no 'The Great Cull'.
I know there's drinking to be done backstage, but 78 minutes? For a band
who've been together 34 years and with a back catalogue as long as your arm,
this seems just a little bit complacent. Some might be so bold as to suggest
that they're taking the piss.
Still, let's focus on the positives. The band sound good. It's not the best
sound mix I've ever heard from them, but they sound damn good, nonetheless.
Geordie is still the embodiment of cool and certainly the coolest guitar
player this side of death.
Jaz is surprisingly dressed down for the occasion, sporting a T-shirt and none
of the usual military surplus gear or warpaint. His hair's much longer, too.
Youth sports his now familiar visor, like a bank clerk from some period drama
set in nineteenth century America.
And Big Paul? What can you say about him? He looks the same as ever and
reliably pounds the living hell out of the skins.
The recording is excellent. I'm very happy with how it has turned out. Trix is
a nice venue with a decent PA and I'll be happy to return, should the occasion
warrant it.
The venue wasn't sold out and there wasn't a lot of audience noise where I was
standing, so the recording is very clean. I wish the set had been longer, but
what I did capture sounds terrific.
Samples are included to help you decide whether this recording justifies your
time, effort and share ratio depletion.
SET LIST:
01. [03:09] [intro]
02. [03:30] Requiem
03. [03:20] Turn To Red
04. [03:39] Wardance
05. [04:43] European Super State
06. [05:57] Love Like Blood
07. [06:06] The Beautiful Dead
08. [02:57] Empire Song
09. [04:53] Chop-Chop
10. [04:35] Sun Goes Down
11. [02:55] Eighties
12. [04:22] Money Is Not Our God
13. [03:28] Whiteout
14. [03:03] Asteroid
15. [04:06] The Wait
16. [03:46] Corporate Elect
17. [05:26] Pandemonium
18. [01:46] [encore break]
19. [04:17] Change
20. [05:42] Pssyche
Total running time: 81:40
TRIX
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