Mesh live

Mesh's Mark discovers that not everybody made it to the toilet in time!

Welcome to the coldest January in England for well over a decade. With ample amounts of snow and ice lining the streets of London, the lads from Mesh are for once really going to need those trademark woolly hats of theirs. Still, all those who can battle through the weather are in for a treat, as this is one gig that has been a while coming. Originally scheduled for the new Marquee back in November, a balls up by the venue meant the gig had to be rescheduled. In the meantime, Mesh’s rather fabulous new album, the electro pop masterpiece ‘Who Watches Over Me’ has finally reached UK shores.

Whilst it may not be shooting up the charts, the boys from Bristol can comfort themselves with some good reviews from the usually vicious British music press, and a number one in the German alternative charts with the single ‘Friends Like These’.

As the greatest undiscovered British band of the last 10 years (personal opinion!) waltz onstage to a new futuristic intro, it’s interesting to note how high tech the band and their equipment appear in comparison to the slightly ropey looking old LA2. The new visuals of digitised captions and TV news broadcasts might be a tad ‘Zoo TV’ for some, but it suits Mesh perfectly. The new screens are also very nice and a vast improvement over the white ‘bed’ sheets that we saw at last April’s gig at Camden Palace. ‘Razorwire’ is a perfect opening choice, being as it is somewhat hidden on the new LP and deserving of much more attention. Personal favourite ‘Self Healing Lie’ finally gets played live next, and if had one complaint about this (and the track before it for that matter), it’s that the guitar parts are still sampled. Considering Mark’s input with some live guitar at the last gig, it's a surprise that so much of the live sound is still on tape/hard disc.

I’ve been fairly lazy with the Depeche Mode comparisons in previous Mesh reviews that I’ve written, so I’ll try not to make any this time round. However, keyboard player Richard is presently sporting a spiky blonde hairdo that does have a touch of Martin Gore about it, and his bespectacled key prodding pal Neil does seem to be drifting towards the Andy Fletcher school of hand clapping and arm waving. Fortunately, our woolly hat wearing singer Mark Stockings bears no resemblance to David Gahan. So Mark, please keep up the good show and no wiggling your bum at us or shouting "I wanna hear you singing" midway through each song!

As might be expected, the bulk of tonight’s set focuses on the ‘Who Watches Over Me’ LP, with the likes of ‘To Be Alive’ and ‘Little Missile’ all putting in appearances. However it’s easy to feel this is at the expense of some of the stronger older material as there is no sign of ‘Fragile’, ‘Involved’ or ‘In The Light Of Day’. Tonight’s set is also quite B-side heavy, as both the recent ‘Let Them Crush Us' (B-side to 'Leave You Nothing') and 'From This Height' (from the ‘Friends Like These’ single) both make showings, as does older B-side ‘The Purest People’. Sadly there’s no sign of ‘Safe With Me’ (the B-side to ‘Not Prepared’ and perhaps possibly one of the finest things that Mesh have ever recorded). Fortunately, ‘People Like Me’ makes a showing as does the evergreen ‘Trust You’, complete with a new hi energy remix, which hopefully will get released some time soon (and maybe then finally make it to the mainstream top 10, where the original so deserved to get to last time). The maudlin longing of ‘Not Prepared’ still hits the right place, as does ‘You Didn’t Want Me’, which goes on forever and is sort of turning into Mesh’s ‘Blue Monday’, hence it might be worth keeping this one back for encores in the future.

Continuing the new material, Mark finally straps on his guitar for ‘Retaliation’ and ‘Leave You Nothing’, and it really brings the show to life hearing some messy feedback over Mesh otherwise pristine backing tracks. ‘Leave You Nothing’ itself is an intense emotional drama. How many other electro bands would write a song about a father’s problems with the custody of his child? Further proof that Mesh may well be the band who finally open up this strange little genre of ours and appeal to the masses who have never felt the lure of PVC or the dance floor at the Slimelight.

This being a gig at the LA2 (I refuse to call it the ‘Mean Fiddler’) we have the obligatory 10pm curfew to deal with. Hence we get supplied with two (pretty spontaneous) encores. Mark introduces ‘It Scares Me’ only for the backing track to ‘Someone To Believe In’ to start playing- Oops! Anyway, the correct backing is soon playing (a shame, as I’d rather have heard ‘Someone To Believe In’!), after which the band vanish, to return seconds later for ‘Confined’ (just to remind us that they did once do a rather fabulous album called ‘In This Place Forever’).

So Mesh are presently obeying their dance floor leanings, and would rather be the new Covenant than the British 242 or the new DM. OK, I have no problem with that, but whilst it may only have been in the last few years that they’ve won any appreciation for their work, Mesh have over 5 albums worth of material to call upon and it would be nice to see a few more old favourites played next time. That aside, another fine batting from Bristol’s finest.

Their new album ‘Who Watches Over Me’ has been released in the countries where the band are the most successful, but the powers that be have decreed that in the territories where good taste is hard to come by (i.e. the UK) the CD should be released at a later date. Hence the band have an unlikely situation tonight, whereby they are playing a date to support an album that hasn’t even been released yet - not counting those copies bought through Amazon.com of course!

"I’m nervous" confesses ski hat clad singer Mark Hockings as he strolls onstage. It’s uncertain if his nerves are in relation to the audience’s response to the largely unfamiliar new material, as in truth he has no worries for the crowd are very much behind him. And believe me, the Camden Palace is packed to the gills tonight, concrete proof that if any band on Flag promotions roster of live artists is destined for the big time its Mesh.

Close Encounters of the Mesh kind!

Perhaps Mark’s caution is directed towards the first floor auditorium where some shadowy suited figures (Columbia Records executives?) dwell menacingly in the shadows. Despite their singer’s reservations, Richard and Neil are very much upfront in their actions. No longer hidden behind hats and shades Mark’s key tapping pals are displaying some vastly improved physical activity onstage, jumping about in a fashion that looks guaranteed to send their keyboards flying.

If Mesh make any mistake tonight, it’s going for overkill with the new material, as it isn’t until a sinister rendition of ‘People Like Me’ that we get anything pre 2002. Not that there is anything wrong with the band’s latest offerings. They continue the emotional strain felt on 1999’s excellent ‘The Point At Which It Falls Apart’, although the club land embracing sounds of the Covenant have obviously inspired Bristol’s finest.

Standout new tracks include the charged ‘Leave You Nothing’ and the empathic 90s style rave of ‘Friends Like These’.

When the old favourites rear their heads there’s a surprise for all assembled, as Mark sports a guitar for ‘In The Light Of Day’, adding some spontaneous feedback to the pre-programmed backing track. It’s a nice idea, but as he is required to stay stationary to reach his microphone, this robs the band of their only mobile member. Perhaps going up to a four piece and adding an additional guitarist would be a better idea? "That was far better in rehearsal" notes Mark of his performance. Classic B side 'The Purest People' gets a pumping hi energy make over, whilst Mesh’s dance floor classic ‘Trust You’ loses it’s unnecessary atmospheric intro and is stripped down to it’s rhythmic core. ‘You Didn’t Want Me’ on the other hand gains an extra five minutes, hence Mark gets a bit lost midway through!

It’s also worth noting the new visuals on offer. The static images used as back projections in the past have been so unremarkable as to make it easy to forget that they’re even part of the show. Not the case tonight as we get moving images of crowded streets and desert highways. Who needs Anton Corbjin?

If the Mesh live experience has any problem it’s that it’s like sucking a sweet- It tastes great, but it can’t quite compare to a varied meal of the kind offered by the band’s emotionally diverse studio output. A perfect example of this would be the dark recesses of LP track ‘My Saddest Day’ which are softened on this occasion by newly added drumbeats. Not that I’m saying that the surge of serotonin that Mesh’s stage bound flavours release is unwanted, though!

Mesh may still be in the early part of their career, but they have a more than diverse pool of material to tap into, from the anthemic ‘It Scares Me’ to the claustrophobic ‘Confined’. Not forgetting the haunting ‘Not Prepared’- a song and a half, it’s a thousand times the single that Coldplay’s ‘Trouble’ was, with only one difference- One received radio airplay, the other didn’t. Is there no justice in this world?

10 years ago Factory Records impresario Tony Wilson, the man who presided over the dawn of both new wave and acid house, was asked his views on what the next big youth movement would be. He theorised that it would arrive at the point when dance music diversed emotionally from the ‘get-on-the-floor-and-boogie’ vibe and began to explore darker territories, just as Joy Division had explored areas of the human psyche bleaker than those ventured into by punk. Could it be that Mesh are the avatars of intelligent dance music that Tony prophesised a decade ago?

For now, go out and buy a copy of ‘Who Watches Over Me’ when it arrives on these shores, for men as talented as Neil, Richard and Mark deserve to be disgustingly rich.

are obviously following the instructions from a 1983 Sounds ‘Are you a Goth?’ guide comes a huge blip on the radar called Mesh.

Difficult as it may be to believe, yours truly had never even heard their name until six months ago, and despite seven years of activity, there are no doubt hundreds (Nay, thousands) who haven’t heard of Mesh either. They really should have. Why has such a pleasant, un pretentious electro band failed to reach so few? The band themselves are obviously distrustful of major labels, but in the long run this reluctance to ‘play the game’ may do them more harm than good.

What we have in Mesh is possibly the greatest English pop band of the moment, yet for such an accessible, commercially viable band, Mesh have a decidedly alternative fan base; Dreads, PVC and Tattoos being the order of the day. In fact given the band’s slightly more contemporary dress sense (Sports shirts, trendy ‘Benny’ hats) you’ve got to wonder just how they managed to seduce the Sisters former crowd. And what a crowd. I’ve seen Islington’s Garage venue full (For All About Eve’s comeback last year) and half-empty (For electro godfathers Suicide) but I’ve never seen it as packed as it is tonight. The Garage is absolutely heaving and as such it’s hotter than Satan’s camping stove. Given the amount of PVC trousers in the house tonight, it’s a case of ‘Betty Swallocks’ all round! That so many have gathered to see the band is testimony to that old form of promotion known as ‘word of mouth’, after all it’s not as if Mesh are the NME’s current darlings!

For the uninitiated, Mesh are a trio from Bristol; A jack rabbit singer named Mark and two other blokes (Neil and Richard) who tap away on keyboards and, well that’s about it really. Since their last manifestation Mark appears to have lost his razor and is sporting a wee bit of facial fuzz.

It's 'Betty Swallocks' all round at Mesh's latest packed gig....

In fact, give the hat he’s already wearing, all he needs is a pair of head hugging rose tinted shades and he’d be the perfect dead ringer for a certain spoof ragga muffin TV host! "Booyashakaa!"

For the most part, the live Mesh experience deviates little from the band’s vinyl excursions (Obviously most sections are on a DAT machine somewhere) but there are exemplary moments where the lads turn up the gears a few notches. The mid tempo house of '’You Didn’t Want Me' becomes a high energy stomp, and for those only acquainted with the acoustic version of ’So Important’ the 'Violator' electro pulse that powers tonight’s rendition will no doubt come as a surprise (Then again, don’t most Mesh tracks sound like Depeche Mode circa 'Violator'?).

There’s also a plentiful supply of new material on offer, and as such Mark continually apologises for ‘boring’ the audience with his new wares, but he need not worry. Admittedly, there is an air of change about Mesh’s latest offerings, but don’t despair, the band haven’t destroyed a winning formula (So no, they haven’t gone death metal!), although there is a decidedly down beat flavour to the band’s latest. However, it’s slower paced in an absorbing fashion- i.e. don’t expect a replay of Depeche Mode’s ‘Exiter’ album when the new Mesh LP comes a calling!

A keyboard intro that recalls the spectral intensity of The Pet Shop Boys’ 'It’s A Sin' beckons us towards possibly the greatest underground dance floor hit of the last decade (Well, it wasn’t a hit, but it bloody deserved to be!) a celestial ditty by the name of ‘Trust You’. Considering the way the audience join in every verse and chorus it’s a dead cert that one day this will be the track (Like what ‘Silence’ did for Delirium/Frontline Assembly) that will turn on the all important torch light of success for Mesh. The band may describe themselves as a melodic alternative to Front 242, but they’re far greater than that: Lets just pray that the right reviewer from Q Magazine was hidden here somewhere amongst tonight’s huge (And very satisfied) audience.