Retro Bar, Manchester
Brave New World at the Retro Bar, Manchester, with Dead Men Win Fights, 25th October 2004:
Our first visit to Manchester since January 2003. Since our last visit, Stealth Munchkin have split, so we are the guests of Stephen and Sam’s new outfit, Dead Men Win Fights at their regular-ish Retro Bar night, Brave New World. Gav is back for the night to play bass (hooray!) and we have Mr. Paul Fleischman on drums. Soundcheck is good — the venue has been much improved on this count since our last visit, although the soundman does his usual trick of falling asleep during the actual gig. At one point the bass-drum mic feedback was so bad it drowned us out! However, it was a good gig overall and I have the minidisc to prove it.
First band on are Dirtblonde: a boy, a girl, a drum machine, but no trumpet. He wears Richard Hell/Sid Vicious type get up including facsimile McClaren/Westwood/Situationist shirt straight out of Sex in 1976. She wears Courtney Love-ish indie clobber. Sound reminds me of the Marychain circa Automatic or maybe Huggy Bear — too much microphonic feedback (the “bad” sort!). They are tight and seem assured, and the material is concise, but if Dirtblonde really mean it (maaan!) then they need to find the confidence to stop doing impersonations and find their own voice.
Dead Men Win Fights only play a short set of 20 minutes or so, but I’m impressed! They have a focus that Stealth Munchkin always seemed to lack (though at least one of their songs — “Lay Off The Booze” — is recycled from Stealth Munchkin days). Influences aren’t obvious, but they are a little Fall-like; a good thing in my book.
Despite aforementioned feedback and Paul’s bass drum pedal breaking during the first song, I am very pleased with tonight. My equipment mostly behaved (though that shaky Jazzmaster bridge is a little vexing; I’ve tried to resist, but I think a tun-a-matic may be in order) and my travel-size WEM amp is more than equal to the task of full-on gigging. Gav and Paul are rock solid and give no indication that they’ve only had one rehearsal!
Set list:
- ES-40 (Williams)
- The Medway Carb Fisherman (Williams)
- Force Of Nature (Williams)
- In Your Head (Williams/Croft)
- Cocoon (Williams)
- Last Train (Williams)
- Hall Of The Mountain King (Grieg)
- Put Your Weight On Me (Williams)
- It’s A Small Town (Williams)
- What’s Under The Stairs? (Williams)
- Buried Alive/Bass VI (Williams)