This was the final secret warm-up show for FLESH FOR LULU'S new line-up ahead of the full re-launch at the already almost sold out headline show at The Borderline on 14th October. That's due to be followed by an UK tour opening for the Goo Goo Dolls and a special show in Preston with The March Violets and The Inca Babies. Full details can be found at their official facebook page here: Flesh For Lulu Facebook page
But before we got to the main event, Some Weird Sin doesn't let me down because tonight's openers are A TERRIBLE SPLENDOUR. Although I hadn't heard of them before, they really impressed us making sure this night felt like we were back in 1983/4 apart from the lack of dry ice and other assorted smoke in the venue.
A Terrible Splendour are a male/female duo who opened with a song about being A China Doll with some great icy synths. The guy was playing a glockenspiel while they had a woman in a white china doll dress dancing at the front. It was very effective and the girl singing has a voice somewhere between Alison Moyet and Marc Almond.
Forces Darling, up next, sounded like very early Pulp crossed with Yazoo and Vince Clarke-era Depeche Mode: a very cool song featuring the guy busting out some great odd almost vogue-style shapes while singing. Screen Test was slightly more noir with some good almost kitchen sink lyrics.
Victimless Crime was probably my favourite of their songs: a brilliant back and forth in the lyrics over a cool as ice synth tune that sounds like it would have been perfect indie chart fodder in 1984 or so. Best Summer seemed almost wrong as I was expecting more darkness and it shone a nice light and upbeat mood towards us with more imperious synths that could have been lifted from OMD but with a twist of Human League in 'em too.
They did a good live ad for their album Poseurs that led into the next song which was all about being Slaves To The City with a bit of a less robotic Kraftwerk about it. They finished with The Russians where the China Doll girl re-appeared in a different outfit. This time she was giving people a rose and then going and taking it back and giving it to someone else while they sang about Russian isolation over a tune that could almost have been stolen from a Cektop Rasa tune.
A great opening set and a band well worth catching if you like early 80's Dark, goth-esque synth pop.
After the break, the nwly-reconfigured FLESH FOR LULU came on. These days they are Nasty Nick Marsh on vocals and guitar; Will Crewsdon on guitar; Mark Bishop on drums and Keith McAndrew on Bass and, damn, are they great. They played like their lives depended on it and from the opening Roman Candle, the duel attack of Nick Marsh and Will Crewsdon's guitars meshed and sent splinters and shards of noise all over a reasonably packed Buffalo Bar. Reasonably packed? It should have been sold out many times over for a band this good for only a £4 ticket price!
Anyway, with barely time for the guitars to stop feeding back, they launched into 7 Hail Marys and Nick's face kept switching from a snarl to a smile as the song got to the chorus and he could see how everyone was lapping it up.
|
What better place to hear about the Subterraneans than in a small sweaty basement bar? This old classic sounded great in its new arrangement and played as ferociously as they could muster. Keith McAndrew was hitting the strings on his bass like he wouldn't be happy till he'd destroyed them. He didn't, thankfully, but damn he was going for it.
Nick introduced Laundromat Kat as being about the days when he was a "Bad boy." No, who would have thought it!! Either way, it was sung with power and passion and I think a few of us would have liked an introduction to Laundromat Kat. I think it was Golden Handshake Girls which featured a single guitar opening as Will sorted out a problem or re-tuned and then changed guitars before coming in and his entrance to the song worked well to up the ante as they got to the chorus where Nick looked like he was ready to be doing a high kicking routine to go along with it. I'm sure once they are back on far bigger stages than this it will become a reality.
As this was a greatest hits set, Cat Burglar was next and was sung with a bit of a nudge and a wink as they powered through it at a fair old speed before Nick introduced Postcards from Paradise as being one of his hits: such a great hit that Paul Westerburg did a good cover of it. But this version was fiery and had most of the audience dancing and singing along. It was followed by the wonderfully sardonic I May Have Said You're Beautiful, But I Lied which Nick seemed to take particular delight in singing.
They closed the set with a rambunctious version of Anti-Social with a great punk edge to it. This just slammed home how ready they are to hit the road and need to be seen live. Sadly, the Buffalo crowd took some effort to cheer enough to get them back for an encore. I think some of them were just so gobsmacked at how intense the set was they forgot to clap. Either way, they soon came back and encored with a full on version of Baby Hurricane which sounded immensely great. What a perfect song to finish with.
As per usual at Some Weird Sin, FFL were followed by a great club night but damn if you get a chance to see this version of Flesh For Lulu grab it with both hands. Nick and Will can between them also be seen on tour with The Urban Voodoo Machine, Rachel Stamp and Scant Regard in the next few months. They're gonna be busy.
|
