|
Blur live at the Fillmore, San
Francisco
29
January 1996
Reviewed by Robid Labin,
posted to alt.music.blur
So, are Blur really intent on "breaking
America" and beating out Oasis in the woefully
misguided and overhyped battle of the "Britpop"
bands? An answer to this question would be merely
gratuitous. But if the public really wants one, they need
only listen to Blur bang out a few schmaltzy, Blur-ified
bars of Oasis' "Roll With It" during their
performance at San Francisco's legendary Fillmore Theater
(in the U.K. last year, it was Blur's "Country
House" single which beat out "Roll With
It" when both were released on the same day). With
lead singer Damon Albarn on organ, they then briefly
launched into the Knacks' "My Sharona." Roughly
translated, the boys just wanna have fun, a concept which
was successfully conveyed to this sold-out crowd.
The pop indie princelings of Britain tread
some strange waters in America these days. As fellow U.K.
acts like Oasis and Bush garner their fair share of
stateside success with radio-friendly alterna-rock, Blur
continue to play distinctly British-flavored pop tunes.
As a live band, however, it doesn't much matter that they
clearly love the Kinks and the Jam more than the Rolling
Stones. They are still, according to stellar guitarist
Graham Coxon, "a pop band that can rock."
The "fast" songs
("Advert," "Globe Alone") were
frenetic and bounce-around pop, and the "slow"
songs ("The Universal," "This Is A
Low") were haltingly anthemic weep-alongs. The fact
that Blur sing about the oddities of the British working
class and occassionally play waltz-y instrumentals
becomes a moot point when the whole crowd begins singing
louder than the singer himself, or when you somehow find
yourself amongst a mass of people giddily shouting out
"Parklife!" every fifteen seconds.
An occassionally dazed Albarn dabbled in
climbing the P.A. and knocking down equipment while a
cheerful Coxon provided some appropriate rockstar
acrobatics. As the crowd writhed in time to the music and
belted out lyrics, an endless stream of groupies
periodically rushed the stage to kiss and/or embrace
poster idols Albarn, Coxon, and bassist Alex James (the
haughty, still one with the hair and cigarette
permanently dangling from the face).
Despite the vocals starting out a bit too
low in the mix, the band were relaxed and limber enough
to provide some crowd-pleasing antics (Albarn risked life
and limb jumping dead center into a pit of young groupies
eager for the flesh of a bona fide British popstar); and
Albarn conversed freely with the fans between songs while
Coxon graciously handed someone a towel of his sweat at
her request. Backed by the steady rhythm of drummer Dave
Rowntree and the embellishments of a two-man horn
section, Blur dove into a steady stream of pop-pleasing
numbers, performing long-lost favorites from all four of
their albums - the grateful crowd were treated to the
rarely-heard "There's No Other Way," their
first major hit from their debut album Leisure
and to a crackling version of "Stereotypes,"
the band's next U.K. single from their current album The
Great Escape.
The Rentals provided a subdued, pleasant
opener to the evening. Frontman (and Weezer bassist) Matt
Sharp led an affable set of "nerd-rock" that
was a moog-synth lover's dream. The band offered a unique
brand of rough pop smoothed out by cheesy electronic
effects. Even better, they also had the harmonizing
backing vocals of two women intent on displaying their
karate-kicking dance moves between synth playing.
Although a slightly annoyed Sharp ignored repeated
requests for "Buddy Holly," the band
temporarily appeased the anxious crowd with their
alternative hit, "Friends of P."
Blur provided the audience (largely a
mixture of Anglophile fashion-followers and swooning
girls) a lesson in the art of a good show - keep the
audience jumping up and down in time and play songs as if
you actually like them (Oasis please take
note). Afterwards, a contented Coxon smiled amiably,
aptly summing up the point of the whole evening: "I
had a lot of fun tonight."
Anyone who wonders if the band are stressed
out with selling as many records in America as Oasis need
not worry. According to Coxon, "[Making music] is
not about making money. It's about integrity."
Robid
Labin
|
