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Massive Attack: NG Magazine Reviews Unkle

2007-11-13 00:07:41

Google; don’t fail me now. I’ve just got back from seeing Unkle play a bombastic set at Nottingham’s Rock City and am desperately scouring the Internet for details about their relatively anonymous but utterly inspired guitarist and bassist. About fifty minutes later I emerge from behind my laptop screen knowing everything I wanted to, and plenty more that I didn’t.

The guitarist playing onstage tonight was electrically charged and attacked his lemon yellow Fender like a little demon. I was convinced that both he and bassist James Griffith, drafted in from Baltimore band Big In Japan, had been bred in the deepest, darkest circle of hell by James Lavelle, for the sole purpose of bringing them out to wow the crowds at live gigs. This idea was emphasised by the fact that every inch of him looked like a weird rock recluse: dark shaved hair, tight jeans, black shirt, studded belt wrapped round his butt emo-style – Trent Reznor couldn’t have bettered it if he tried.

What I discovered was that the guitarist is Andy Colwill from a Brighton-based outfit that goes by the rather unfortunate tag of Mama Hoochie Bang. Goddamn Myspace! It has a talent for completely blasting every carefully-crafted rock myth to a million smithereens.

Returning to the gig (Alas! That is what I’m supposed to be writing about), I must mention tonight’s opening act, Cougar. With lullabies to paralyse, Cougar are what Foals would sound like if had they been heavily sedated and reared on a combination-diet of breakbeat, stadium rock and Four Tet. I know this sounds difficult to imagine, but they were pretty cool, in a slower but grander three-guitar, one-bass, one-sequencer and one-drummer kinda way. They almost stand on stage and caress their guitars in a similar fashion to Foals. Eerie. Check them out if you can!

Rock City isn’t full tonight and Unkle should know why. They’ve not really brought their live offering to the UK before, choosing instead to tour globally. In fact, if you’re living in most other parts of the world, the chances are you will have seen Unkle:Live before us poor sods in blighty. Mr Lavelle; how could you neglect us so? The crowd is composed mainly of (it has to be said) men and women with men, i.e. couples. People warned me about the ‘older’ crowd and I have to admit they are right; thirtysomethings that are actually nearing fortysomething appear in tiny pockets in the crowd, trying to recapture those legendary, long-forgotten days of booze and mayhem in the mid-nineties. This period of time, children, is more popularly referred to as Britpop.

Unkle: Live

For those of us who aren’t trying to recapture anything (mainly cos we never lost it in the first place), Unkle manage to surpass all expectations and deliver a set that can only be described as mesmerising. They tear through songs from the bass-and-guitar heavy new album War Songs with reckless abandon and look and sound every inch a stadium rock band. For perhaps the first time in my life, I’m not using that description as a pejorative term. Visually, the effects are stunning. A projection screen forms the backdrop, while pumping strobes and flashing lights make you feel like you’re either watching MTV or U2. Lavelle even looks like Bono, complete with idiotic dark sunglasses (which he doesn’t remove at any point throughout the set), a long jackety-coat-type thing (men need to dress better) and dark beanie hat. Not a good look.

But it’s the bassist and guitarist, positioned at either side of the stage, that keep us captivated. They are both masters of their instruments, swinging their axes wildly and throwing crazy sputnik-style shapes across the stage. Their effortless but intense performances make Richard File’s strumming seem incredibly pale in comparison, but I don’t think he really minds. The standout tracks include Ian Astbury’s Burn My Shadow, Josh Homme’s Restless and the Duke Spirit’s Mayday, although any new material that they touched became immense; filling the venue with a spectacular three-dimensional pure-rock sound that was like hearing Nine Inch Nails take on The Prodigy or Metallica and Black Sabbath fighting a winning battle with Portishead. They played a few old-skool tracks from the Britpop era that got the older contingency fired up, like the Richard Ashcroft collaboration Lonely Soul and 2003 single In A State. To be brutally frank though, they were poor in comparison to the total rock-out of anything else.

Forget everything you thought you knew about Unkle. When you see Unkle:Live, expect the entire experience to be clad in an armour of heavy metal. All the years of working with rock greats like Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme, Metallica and Radiohead have finally paid off. James Lavelle and Richard File have totally immersed themselves in guitars and use them to inspire their dance-production techniques to amplify rock music to an ear-splittingly loud level. Make no bones about it; these guys know how to turn it all the way up to eleven. Utterly deafening, but totally awesome!

Bob’s Your Uncle: Michelle Dhillon (Dhillon=Dylan=Bob, hence the caption)

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