The The
1990-10-03Kilburn National
If there are any bands reading this then take some advice: (1) Don't print 'There will be no support' on your tickets unless you want to seem really pompous. (2) Don't put your faces on the ticket if Johhny Marr is the best looking bloke in your band.
Back in 1986 I thought that Infected was one of the best albums ever made. Now I tend to think that it captures the grime of the eighties in a way no other album did, but I'd rather forget the eighties so I don't listen to it much anymore. It was because of that album that I had to see them live and the fact that Johnny Marr of The Smiths was their guitarist made it even more essential.
My mum was there to continue her anthropological studies and luckily for her it was a very diverse crowd. Since The The's music doesn't easily fit into any catagories I guess this should be expected.
What really sticks in my mind about this gig was how slick and professional it was. Not that there were 20 costume changes and a line of muscular blokes dancing at the back of the stage, it's just you don't often get such a well rehearsed and musicianly band in such small venues.Add to this the incredibly good and moody lighting and you start to question if this isn't all a bit too much for a 1500 ticket gig. It was a great night and even made material from the rather poor Mindbomb album sound good.