During the week I was lucky enough to make it to one of the many great sideshows surrounding the Big Day Out national tour, with UNKLE hitting the Metro Theatre on Wednesday night. UNKLE has been centred on the talents of Mo Wax legend James Lavelle for well over a decade now, with singer/songwriter Richard File on board since 2004, and the identity of the group is always changing depending on the project they’re exploring at the time. They have an impressive mixture of achievements with their work spanning production of soundtracks, albums, remixes, playing DJ sets around the world and basically anything else they can get their hands on. UNKLE as an entity has released several albums including the foundation-shaking Psyence Fiction in ‘98, the intense Never, Never, Land in ‘04 and their latest album War Stories from just last year, being showcased on this tour. Their sound is generally described as one that defies musical categorisation and makes the most of an amazing cast of guest vocalists including Thom Yorke, Richard Ashcroft, Ian Brown, Mike D and many more.
After bailing on work drinks I scurried down to the Metro to ensure I made it for the start of the gig. We arrived at the venue just after 8pm and SubAudible Hum was already on stage half way through their one hour set. The tunes they were laying down were quite good with a great progressive rock sound, interesting melodies and big melancholy vocals reminding me of the sound that Muse are pushing at the moment. As SubAudible Hum finished up, the crowd eagerly awaited the main act with the venue already packed full of excited punters. This is generally unexpected for a Wednesday night gig, however many fans had made the effort to come out for the show and you could feel the excitement building as the background music rocked on and the busy hum of everybody talking filled the air. There was also a lot of speculation going on as to what we could expect, as it had recently been announced that Richard File had departed UNKLE to pursue other projects.
With the excitement in the room building every minute they missed their scheduled starting time, each of the group members eventually rolled out on stage at about 9.45pm, much to the crowds delight. The stage setup had the decks in the middle of the stage, the two guitarists and bass player and vocalist manning the front and sides of the stage. The show kicked off with a rocking track with a very huge dark menacing sound that more than filled the venue and got everybody on the main floor moving. Throughout the set they played a number of tracks from the new album War Stories and they also threw in a few classics for good measure.
The sound of tracks from their latest album has been described as ‘ominous, apocalyptic, stormy’ and this fairly accurately represents how they sound live on the night. Some of the names featured on the album include producer Chris Goss, vocalist/guitarist Josh Homme, The Cult frontman Ian Astbury, Massive Attack’s 3D, and even Lavelle himself makes his singing debut on a couple of the tracks. During the show he left the decks behind for a couple of the tunes, belting out some decent vocals. One of the highlights of the show was of course hearing some familiar classics which got an amazing reaction from the crowd with the last two tracks played being the epic In a State and an awesome remix of Rabbit in the Headlights.
Overall, it was great to see UNKLE in a fully-fledged live band performance. The twist on the album versions of the tracks was sublime with a heap of energy being thrown into each track. The myriad of guest vocalists was also a memorable part of the show and it definitely surpassed my expectations for what the gig would be like. If you have a chance this weekend make sure to catch them at one of their performances!
reesy_unltd says...
Jesus. Did we go to the same gig? Who and where the hell was this myriad of guest vocalists? P.s. the awesome track is called Rabbit In YOUR Headlights, and it wasn't a remix.