March/April/May 1999
June 23, 1998
8:45 pm we're ushered into the Alley Cat where I strategically situate myself against the wall stage right, against the wall about three vertical rows from the front of the stage. There are 200 or so of us waiting patiently for blur to appear onstage. The World Cup's going on and we know that the show will not start until 10:30 pm at the earliest as the boys will be watching the match. blur appear onstage at 10:45 pm by which time all 600 or so of us are packed like sardines. The Alley Cat has now transformed itself into a veritable sauna!
Does anyone care? No! The show must go on and it begins as damon informs us that it's been six months since they played last, so to be easy on them. Gotcha! "Girls and Boys" begins the set, we weren't expecting it as the first song, but rush forward we do. The strobe lights are psychedelic and very blurry. By the fourth song, "End of a Century," everyone is sweating profusely (especially damon, whose shirt-the same blue one he wore in Australia-is plastered to his body with sweat). Alex is completely out of it; Graham, I can't see because the speakers are in the way; and dave is silently suffering back there, I know it.
The new song that debuts at the Alley Cat is a song for "Southpark" ( Is on the new CD "13" as "Trailerpark." The keyboard sound is Beck-ish and 60's-ish at the same time. It's cool and sends shivers up (and down) my spine. The latter part of the song is headbanger's heaven. During the next song, "Parklife," damon gets up on the large equipment case and hits his head on the spotlight above. That must have hurt quite a bit as he falls onto the case backwards and is down for a few seconds. Poor damon!
From the eighth song, "Popscene," onwards, they are really flying! They breeze along until their 15th song, the last song before the encore, "This is a Low." Ah, bliss! We were all hot, hot, hot, but we wanted an encore even if we weren't okay enough to shout out loudly for one. We were all just trying to survive the maddening heat without going mad. blur return after a brief break to give us "Beetlebum." damon's sweat trickles down his arms and onto the body of his acoustic guitar where it gathers and glistens. Oooh!
The encore ended with Song 2 as we pogoed up and down and basically went bezerk. What struck me this time was how much damon looks toward Graham. The whole evening was one in which he would constantly look in Graham's direction to see if everything was under control. I could not help but be moved by these two musicians' special bond which transcended music and even life itself, or so it seemed. Love ya blur!
BRITGIRL
This is the second in a series of neverending blur gig reports
by BRITGIRL. Copyright belongs solely to BRITGIRL and
reproduction permitted only by prior written consent.
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