BIG STAR +
THE POSIES +
ARNOLD
London Mean Fiddler 9th August 2001
Even though they weren't in good form the other night, I would still have preferred a short set from Death Cab for Cutie, than half an hour of Arnold. They 'rocked' a bit more than I was expecting - sort of a blustery Faces/ Cheap Trick vibe came across, and they ended up coming across like that Primal Scream circa 'Give out Don't Give up'. I guess if you liked that, then you'd have no problem with Arnold. Oh well.
Next up are half of Big Star - namely Ken Stringfellow (now with bright red hair!) and Jon Auer of the Posies - who complete a Posies 'full house' for us, as the acoustic Posies set was the one (out of their three gigs) that we didn't see in March. It's fine stuff of course, less obvious tunes from the recent EP mingle with older tunes like 'Suddenly Mary' and 'Solar Sister'. 'Grant Hart' is stil my fave though.
Big Star's line-up (Alex Chilton, Jody Stephens and the two aforementioned Posies) is the same one that I saw in 1993, and consequently the one that featured on the live 'Columbia' album. In fact if you've heard that album you would've been familiar with tonight's set, and wouldn't have been as disappointed as the guy behind me who kept shouting for 'Kangaroo'. No, this was the Big Star of 'No1 Record' and 'Radio City', and not the fractured band who made the flawed masterpiece of 'Sister Lovers'.
In contrast to the gig I saw years ago, Chilton actually seems to be enjoying himself, and although he seems happy to let the Posies carry a lot of the vocals and guitar work, he has now ditched the shades and he does speak to the audience occasionally! Tonight he reminds us how great a band Big Star, with the likes of 'In The Street', 'Don't lie to Me, 'When My Baby's Beside Me' and 'Feel' all sounding fresh as ever. Jon Auer takes the late Chris Bell's vocal on 'I Am the Cosmos' and Jody chips in for his two classics 'Way Out West' and the ever lovely 'For You'. The slower tunes are equally great, particularly 'The Ballad of El Goodo' and perhaps best of all is 'Thirteen'. By now the standard covers of 'Til the End of the Day' (Kinks), 'Baby Strange' (TRex) and Todd Rundgren's lyrically dodgy 'Slut' fill out the main set and 'Big Black Car' is really the only nod to the depression of 'Sister Lovers'. 'Thank You Friends' finishes things off in grand style and a sensible band may have left it there.
However, the encore consists of some ordinary 'new songs' and silly encores - a decent attempt 'Wouldn't it be Nice' and a completely disco work-out for KC's 'Get Down Tonight'. They just didn't know when to stop, but it was nice to see Mr Chilton enjoying himself.
