It's Saturday night and I've just driven over three hundred miles to Birmingham to see a band that split up over eight years ago. Have I lost the plot? Is this really worth the trek? Were they really as good as I remember? And even if they were, will they be even remotely as good now? Will I ruin the memory of those last gigs I went to see? It's time to find out.
It's with these memory and worries that I make my way into the Carling Academy in Birmingham to see Pop Will Eat Itself... who? It seems a generation has already grown up without PWEI; god, I feel old! So for those of you who don't know who PWEI are... well... er, you know what; I really haven't a clue how to describe them. "They're very much like scruffy pigs to look at.... they're very, very ugly indeed." You smiled, yes? Thats what PWEI are - they are a band that makes you smile. You can't help it. Their music never sits still; with its samples, pop, rhythm and rhyme you'll be pogoing along to the beats before you even know what pogoing is!
The place is packed wall to wall with a much older crowd than most of the last few gigs I've attended recently. People have flown in from the States, Japan and Australia just for these shows. It's a pleasant, welcoming atmosphere and you can feel the energy already building in the venue. You can tell nearly everyone is a fan and not just heard one or two tracks.
Tony, Gill and I stand chatting to a small group of people listening to a rather weak support band in the vein of Snow Patrol watered down. We're not impressed! So we wait and chat and the atmosphere still builds, no thanks to the support. Not soon enough they are off. We move into the pit - no standing at the side watching for this gig. I remember the old days and we all know what to expect.
"What is the truth about rock music? Music is a powerful, and perhaps the most powerful, medium in the world. Music. Plato says when the music of a society changes, the whole society will change. Aristotle, a contemporary of Plato's, says when music changes there should be laws to govern the nature and the character of that music. Lenin says that the best and the quickest way to undermine any society is through its music... Music, ladies and gentleman, is the gift of God. It was given to man to offer praises to God and to lift us up to him and to exalt Him to touch the tender recesses of our hearts and of our minds. Satan has taken music and he has counterfeited it, convoluted it, twisted it, exploited it, and now he's using it to hammer, hammer, hammer, hammer, hammer a message into the minds and the lifestyles of this generation."
And this was how it started with the sample playing and the band walking on stage. The relative calm before the storm: "Perverts, on your knees, for what your about to receive." And with those first few words of preaching to the perverted, the crowd erupted into a heaving mass of pogoing. The dance of the mad had already begun, and that song wasn't even going to be played till the end of the set; there was no stopping us now. The question was could the band keep up - after all, it's been a few years.
This question was soon answered: Graham was jumping about like a nutter at every opportune - and inopportune -moment; Clint was whipping the crowd into a frenzy that wasn't going to stop; the tunes were pumping and the pace rarely dropped for the whole gig. The tunes have stood the test of time as well, with
Kick to Kill having had a little facelift - making it even more intense! - though the highlight for me had to be the Poppies' version of
Their Law; it blows the Prodigy version out the water with its heavy bass.
Sure, Clint missed a line or two, but it's forgivable; after all, it had been a while. Every tune played was a classic - no new stuff that we might not know to clutter up the set! So as they played the final track,
Karmadrome, it truly did feel like karma; this gig was as near perfect as you'll get.
www.pweination.org
. Still PWEI in concert is an experience.
