Tuesday, 19 June 2007
Funk Soul Rock N' Roll Brothers - played to slick perfection....
The cold light of musical revisionism hasn't neccessarily been kind to INXS - It's been many a year since Q said anything nice about them, thanks to the dominance of Grunge, Britpop and the death of Michael Hutchence, whose career in the gossip columns was beginning to outshadow the band itself. As the musical winds changed, it became unfashionable to even admit you even listened to them; (hell, a favourable INXS review once cost me a reviewing job on one website). Fast forward to 2007, and there's a new album ("Switch"), a new singer in the form of J.D.Fortune, and they're back on the road.
Support comes from The English Beat, whose set of impeccably played funk-reggae is smattered with hits and the funkiest bass player I've seen in years. They roll out hits such as "I Confess", "Ranking Full Stop", and "Mirror In the Bathroom", (featuring Pato Banton, dressed in head to toe white tracksuit) and "Save it For Later" with precision, whilst dressed in black porkpie hats - all to a receptive audience.
INXS on the other hand, are preaching not only to the converted, the faithful who have been waiting for their return, but also to the curious. Its a good job then, that INXS are damn, damn fine ; a Hybrid Pop-Funk-Soul-Stadium-Rock-N'-Roll Las Vegas Lounge band, oozing sleaze with a slick, practised frontman who appears to have teleported in from Depeche Mode.
Yes, new singer J.D. Fortune (found on a reality TV Show for wanna-be rock stars X-Factor style) is the spitting image of Dave Gahan in 1993, down to goading the crowd in almost identical fashion and identikit rock-star cliche gestures. If he could leave those behind and have his own personality rather than one he seems to have borrowed from a passing LA metal rockstar, he might be a damn sight more interesting. But in terms of the music (not the cliched stage raps and jumping into the crowd), he fits the bill - and then some. He prowls the stage like a lithe Sex Panther, full of finesse and cockyness. What more could you want from a rock star?
INXS are back, and they're back for good. They have possibly the best intro I've seen in years - a clock counting down to the band, soundtracked to the impossible to ignore AC/DC doing "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap". Its a magnificent entrance... the curtain drops, and for the next two hours INXS prove themselves with style, aplomb, and in spades. They hit the ground running, and its like a greatest hits jukebox. Its easy to forget just how many fantastic singles they did, until they are rolled out one after the other in style. Its hit after hit, reaching heights above and beyond that of their peers to show themselves to be the U2 it was never Ok to like, but who consistently churned out fantastic hit singles every single time, be it "Suicide Blonde"or "Disappear", Be it "Need You Tonight" or "New Sensation", be it "Devil Inside" or "Mystify"
The hits keep coming, one after the other, from the opening that get the crowd singing in unison to the closing new-Romantic-esque "Don't Change". (Ok, I am a little biased, but they haven't played that one for almost two decades and I love it to bits).Even more astounding is when you realise that the songs they don't play is a back catalogue in itself most bands would kill for - "Guns In the Sky", "Bitter Tears", "Heaven Sent", "Baby Don't Cry", "Beautiful Girl", "Listen Like Thieves", and "Burn For You", to name but a few.
However, its not just the back catalog people are here for; this is no mere nostalgia show. Five tracks from the new album "Switch" show INXS alternating between the hard edged stadium funk of "Devils Party" and "Pretty Vegas" - and melancholic epic ballads with a hint of space rock. The melancholic and elegaic "Afterglow" and "Gods Top Ten" show a side of the band often overlooked in favour of the hit singles, creating atmospheres and textures that take you to that other place that only the very best music can. Not even the rather out of place cover version of Johnny Cash's "Fulsom Prison Blues" can undo the class of the new material ; though the line 'I shot a Man in Scotland just to watch him die' might not go down very well in Glasgow...
Impeccably played to perfection, INXS shine tonight. With the change of singer and circumstances, you could be forgiven for going into the gig with some trepidation; instead what you get is a finely tuned stadium rock beast, a band at the peak of their powers with a bright future ahead of them and a back catalogue to die for. You won't go home disappointed believe me, because INXS are reborn and revitalised. Slick, sleek and tuned to perfection, they're becoming the band they always promised they could become.....and then some.
Setlist:- SUICIDE BLONDE / DEVILS PARTY / MYSTIFY / DISAPPEAR / BY MY SIDE / AFTERGLOW / TASTE IT / NEVER LET YOU GO / ORIGINAL SIN / NEED YOU TONIGHT / WHAT YOU NEED / FULSOM PRISON BLUES / DEVIL INSIDE / PRETTY VEGAS /
encore: - GODS TOP TEN / NEW SENSATION / NEVER TEAR US APART / DONT CHANGE Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register. Powered by AkoComment 1.0 beta 2! |
