enthusiasm

The first and only “proper” gig I’ve been to this year. I hadn’t been aware that Leftfield were treading the boards again, which undoubtedly says more about my lack of attention than their lack of promotion. A few considerations:

Has Brixton become vastly whiter in the last few years, or was it just the effect of the evening’s crowd on the street ambience?

If you were, say, sixteen when Leftism came out, you are now twice that, and let’s face it, you’re middle-aged. This fact is amply reflected in the Academy crowd, who are median thirty/forty-something, with the outliers being more older than younger. So, I’m looking at a middle aged audience that’s mostly younger than me. This is new.

The sound of the warm-up is dismayingly weedy. The sound when Leftfield take the stage is positively enormous.

They aren’t the most captivating live performers. There are three large screens which display what I had better call visuals. These visuals probably cost them an arm and a leg, but, old Hypermedia hand that I am, I’m spotting Director/Flash cliches in abundance, and I’d judge they probably paid their arm and leg at least ten years ago. This area is in need of refreshment.

When they rock out, the bass kicks like a motherfucker — rather like a rhythmic repetition of this:

Singers wander on to revisit or re-interpret their guest appearances, mostly to very good effect, and wander off. I prefer the more dub-inflected pieces to the techno/trance-inflected pieces. Always did. I found Rhythm & Stealth a much more satisfying overall experience than Leftism.

So, the band is rocking, the aroma is pungent, and it’s all going swimmingly until they begin to build into what I was expecting to be a highlight of the show, Inspection Check One — and it fails. It fails because they mess with the program: where the original was stepping, we have a white MC of the grime tendency, who isn’t by any means untalented, but he’s going with a more contemporary, slack delivery, in absolutely the last Leftfield tune where this might be expected to work. Also, he’s mixed too far down for his qualities to show at best advantage. This is disappointing to me.

They recover their groove in the last two or three numbers that follow, but by that point my ageing frame is demanding oxygen, liquids and something to lean against, and I’m out in the bar. This might be the longest time I’ve spent on my feet all year, and my hip joints are letting me know all about it.