FOR the last date of their four night UK stint touring their newly released ‘Chaosmosis’, Glasgow-founded Primal Scream found themselves in Manchester’s angelic Albert Hall. Quays News entertainment reporter Seren Hughes-Jones went along…
The night’s warm up act, the Japanese four-piece Bo Ningen, arrived on stage at 8pm to an inquisitive reception. With their name projected behind them for the entirety of the performance, it became apparent that they wanted to be remembered, and they certainly did.
First officially performing in 2007, Bo Ningen have gradually built up their own repertoire with their powerful live performances gaining them high-profile appearances, such as Meltdown Festival, Coachella, and Venice Biennale. Classified as ‘Noise rock’, a genre stemming from early avant-garde art forms, their disregard for traditional song writing conventions, use of atonality and unpredictability certainly allowed them to make their mark.
Hiding behind their long reams of black hair, Bo Ningen’s stage presence began as bleakly mysterious, blossoming into a paradoxically flamboyant affair as they continuously jumped off equipment and pranced around stage, even guitarist Kohhei Matsuda decided to demonstrate swinging his guitar full circle in the air. This paradox is also true of their sound – take some funk breakdowns, manic screams, classic rock riffs, lazy to progressively hectic basslines, psychedelic synthesisers and garage, grunge and acid-house influences, and you have a band that are hard to place in a box.
Notable songs from their setlist include ‘DaDaDa’ from their most recent 2014 album ‘III’ performed in light of its choppy Japanese vocals and hazy mix of instruments to let the audience feel the effect of their psychedelic roots. The band also threw in other tracks from the album such as ‘Maki-Modoshi’ and ‘CC’, making a bittersweet reference to Crystal Castles after their minor feud.
Tracks from ‘III’ reflected a clearer vision of the pathway of their new sound, in comparison to tracks such as ‘Daikaisei Part 1’ from their 2012 album ‘Line The Wall’ where their heavy guitar riffs and echoing vocals churned out a strikingly apparent Black Sabbath-vibe.
At 9pm, bouncing against the brilliant oddity of the warm up act, stormed on Bobby Gillespie and the rest of Primal Scream to the ear-piercing roar of the beaming crowd, with most sporting their ‘Screamadelica’ themed iconic sunburst t-shirts.
They threw the crowd right into the centre of their history beginning with ‘Movin’ On Up’, arguably their most popular song, with the crowd, from the very front row to high up in the balcony clapping in time to Bobby’s cue: and with the audience at the palm of their hands Primal Scream continued on with the rest of their spectacular and energetic and time-spanning setlist.
For the second song of the night the band gave fans a taste of their new album ‘Chaosmosis’, a name said to reflect the current hostile political environment of the UK, released on March 18. ‘Where The Light Gets In’ originally featuring Sky Ferreira, was performed by blonde bombshell Hannah Marsden who beautifully harmonised with Gillespie in the back-and-forth, irresistibly catchy and sparklingly pop vocals of this electronically jangling and glamourous song.
Critically dubbed as ‘patchy’, songs from ‘Chaosmosis’ only feature five times in Primal Scream’s 90 minute set. The album, which sheds their rock and roll past, still retains a feel of something that is purely theirs. Such an impression could be said of their performance of ‘Trippin’ On Your Love’ which, regardless of being one of their new hits, got the crowd swinging their hips and belting the simple, feel-good chorus before it could reach a minute in.
For their older fans the band incorporated hits from the overtly political 2000 ‘XTRMNTR’. Electronically fused hits such as ‘Accelerator’ and ‘Shoot Speed/Kill Light’ showed off their use of deep basslines and wild synthesizers, derived from their psychedelic influences from the ‘acid-house’ scene, with keyboardist Martin Duffy producing a clean-cut sound. Regardless of the inclusion of vocals, Primal Scream filled the room with their phenomenal and awe-rendering original electronic dance sound alone, all to be expected from a band who’ve been playing live shows since 1982.
Pre-encore the band blared out two of their biggest songs, ‘Riot City Blue’s’ and ‘Country Girl’ followed by their highest charting single to date, ‘Rocks’ from the 1994 ‘Give Out But Don’t Give Up’. The songs reflected the bands use of power pop structures, harking back to NME’s C86 cassette compilation, with chiming indie guitars and big sing along choruses that were perfectly fitted to tie together the main part of their set.
Primal Scream where amazing last night, never has a band suited a venue like they did at Albert Hall, 10/10
— jooowwwwsh (@SchoJ0shField) April 3, 2016
To finish what could be defined as the epitome of a flawless performance, dedicated to a variety of music genres from indie-pop, garage, dance, funk, psychedelia and glam pop and a whole lot in between, Primal Scream finished with another two songs from their breakthrough Mercury Prize Winning album ‘Screamadelica’.
Coming up to its 25th anniversary, ‘Loaded’, a remix of their earlier song ‘I’m Losing More Than I’ll Never Have’, was received by the exhilarated audience in the form of echoing anticipated screams over of the clip of Peter Fonda from ‘The Wild Angels’ at the beginning of the song. The evident Madchester vibe, with the song’s mix of a looped drum beat, the wah-wah guitar and its funk rhythms, got the entirety of Albert Hall jiving, pleasing those fans of Manchester’s own Stone Roses’ Mani, a former drummer of the band.
That was one of THE GREATEST gigs ever @ScreamOfficial @Alberthallmcr just amazing ! pic.twitter.com/JGqi4aLqiz
— AndyVonPip (@VonPip) April 3, 2016
Concluding with ‘Come Together’ with its political undertones and theme of unity, sampling segments from Jesse Jackson’s poem ‘I Am Somebody’, the crowd were brought together as one, singing their rendition of the gospel “Come together as one” back to the band, which suitably closed their powerful and vibrant setlist.
In a wholly effortless style, Primal Scream’s live presence is derivative of their 34 years together as band – a spirited, flamboyant, polished and show-stopping performance, centred around a wide-ranging basket of genre-spanning songs, Primal Scream deliver something for everyone, and if you want to have a beaming smile put on your face, don’t forget to catch them next time.
By Seren Hughes-Jones
@A_Day_Of
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