HW/OFF: Litmus + Arthur Brown, Camden Underworld, 3rd September

[Jon Jarrett]

        Dear All,
                  forgive me for this late and sketchy review, but I had
assumed till just recently that I'd reviewed it elsewhere and this turns
out not be so.

        Briefly, a great gig with lots of fun had by all. I arrived only
just in time to get a beer before Litmus took the stage. They courageously
opened the set with a new song, though I thought a new listener wouldn't
have known. Apparently things didn't seem quite so rosy from the stage,
but the second one, also new, though it did seem to come dangerously loose
during its early stages when guitar and bass had to go through three
iterations of their complex riffs before they were finally in step, seemed
to present the band with an opportunity to laugh at the clumsiness and
recovery from it rather than a horrible failure. It looked and felt as if
they were having fun pushing the limits of their competence. And the quite
fantastic lights made everything experimental seem more worthwhile anyway.

        I didn't write a set-list so at some point I'll get this wrong; I
think they now opted for the safer ground of `Infinity Drive' followed by
`Dreams of Space', both of which were full-on. I got stuck into a moshing
loop during the break of the latter, I was damned if I was going to give
up before they were. It was very intense and tight. But even then, secure
for a bit, they branched out into new stuff again, and we got (I think
these occurred here) two more new ones. I don't remember too much about
the former, though I thought at the time that it was very much more
together than the second one of the set. Martin did tell me the name of
the latter after the set, but I've forgotten it; it was definitely the one
that blew me away most. An evil bassline--if this long track was in space,
which it definitely was, Willie Dixon flung it there by main force--and a
fantastic break are what I mostly remember about it; guitar and bass
carrying on in the same time signature but without reference to each
other, like Beefheart having half of his band in a different room,
irresistibly unscrewing the top of the listener's head. Simon and Martin
looking out at different sections of the crowd, you could have
photographed them and superimposed a spaceship cockpit's glazing for the
next album cover, two spacemen staring out at the void while Matt and
Anton tune banks of electronics in the background and somewhere behind
them almost invisible but evident by the sheer noise of him, Marek shovels
coal into the rhythm section.

        Anyway. Too metaphorical perhaps but it very much impressed me,
and the number wound down in a very stoner coda and they gave us a few
seconds break with `Rays of Sonic Light' before going into `Sonic Light'
itself and finally closing with `Twinstar'. It was all very good. Some
might say the first two numbers were a bit too risky, but it was a risk I
was glad they took.

        Arthur Brown also managed to be unexpected. Although he did take
the stage in the same way as I last saw him doing for one of his own
performances, that is, in a big black overcoat, carrying a lantern and a
staff with a black stocking entirely obscuring his face, he didn't open
with the same number (which was a pity in a way because that was `Hard
Rain Gonna Fall' and he didn't do it at all). He opened with a new one, I
think, it must have been fairly recent because it mentioned crack, anal
sex and the Gulf War, all of which are apparently things he thinks part of
the collapse of worthwhile civilisation. It also included the lines:

                Give me back the Berlin Wall
                Give me Stalin and Saint Paul
                I've seen the future
                And it's *murder*

which, I don't know about you but when someone like Arthur Brown tells me
in his most sepulchral voice that the world's finished, good's dead and
from here it can only get worse, which was the general import of things, I
wonder what he knows that I don't... He rapidly had the crowd's attention
anyway.

        Can't remember everything else he did; we got, as well as a clutch
of things I didn't know, `I Put a Spell on You', `That's How Strong My
Love Is', `Fire Poem' & `Fire' of course and without half as much of the
clowning about whether he's going to do it or not to which I've got used,
and particularly notable, a really strong version of `Time Captives', a
song which I was never impressed by when Hawkwind did it. Somehow, with a
three-piece band all wearing (for this number only) what appeared to be
upturned halves of medicine-ball sized spheres on their heads adorned with
LEDs, and Arthur standing stock still with glowing raver-type mini disco
balls on handles in each hand, the number acquired a solemnity a full band
in a big venue couldn't have given it.

        The band worth a mention: most of the work, on guitar, dulcimer,
and at least one other instrument I now forget (I really should have
written this up sooner) along with a pedal bass organ set-up, a very able
chap whose name I cannot now discover (<http://www.godofhellfire.co.uk>
being rather behind the times sad to tell), and on the other side a
guitarist who was rather less stable, but freaked high as well as low, by
which I mean that his solos were generally excellent after about forty
seconds work to get into it. A lot of backchat between him and Brown, and
one or two spots of duelling acoustics (yes, no electric really here,
except during `Fire' and a couple of other numbers which followed),
everyone seemingly not quite sure what they were doing but willing to
throw everything they in and see what came out. They knew the songs well
enough, just not how they'd be this time... The whole set-up also led to a
very top-end show. The focus was Brown's voice of course, but for someone
who once put together the Kingdom Come stuff and complained how
ordinary drummers couldn't cope with what they wanted you'd think the
terribly terribly sparse and basic rhythm section that the bass pedals and
(on one song only) a foot-board gave would be insufficient. The main reason
I didn't wind up buying the live CD-R of this band that was on sale was
that I could imagine how on a stereo this would all sound terribly empty
and dull without the spirit of the performance to animate it. But with it,
while you were there, it was all forgivable because it was after all
Arthur Brown live.

        Brown himself was in fine and unpredictable form, his voice as
ever fantastic but also his stage banter. At one point he idly paused a
minute to flick some fluff or something from his belly, and looking up at
the crowd as if surprised to find them watching him, solemnly intoned,"My
belly-button's better than your belly-button". Some wag in the crowd
presumably shouted, "Want to bet on it?" because Brown replied "Yes,
actually, I would like to bet on it. I've rubbed it with coconut
oil,", making with the appropriate actions, "I've warmed it slightly over
the stove, and I've had it licked by sixteen Vestal Virgins before coming
on stage... *Some* of them were *girls*!" He didn't get heckled much after
that, which is almost a shame given the quality of response.

        Also, because I haven't mentioned her yet, a blonde Russian girl
playing Hammond for `Fire' and a few following numbers. She was quite good
I suppose, but mostly she won points for being attired in flowing
hippy-chick clothes and dancing a great deal like a Bond girl behind the
organ. What with her dress, dance style and the lights, it was all
dangerously Austin Powers but thankfully the rest of the band made it
rather more serious than that. Apparently she's part of Instant Flight
whom Brown sometimes uses as backing band.

        Last number beat them all, after she'd gone off stage again, being
a huge blues medley. I couldn't tell you all the songs that were in there,
I didn't know them all for a start, but at least (I think?) `Hoochie
Coochie Man' (might be making that one up actually), `Spoonful' and, what
surprised me most, U2's `Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For', which
he probably gave more time than any of the others and which he did very
well. Having seen U2 do it twice at the old Wembley Stadium I wouldn't
like to say it was the best version I've seen but it was good to see that
Brown presumably thought it worth including along with the other
classics. The whole medley went on for a good ten minutes, anyway, and if
we'd needed reminding that Arthur Brown can sing the blues, we knew it
now.

        There was no encore, because of a club afterwards I think, though
the clearing-out was still fairly leisurely. I was skint so I didn't buy
either the 1997 `Vampire Love' single or a new live CD-R of this band
which probably would have been worth it had I been richer. I was
interested to see both, plus also the _Brown Black and Blue_ album which I
thought long unavailable. I hope he keeps going long enough for me to
come back into funds, anyway. He shows *no* signs of stopping.



--
                Jonathan Jarrett, Birkbeck College, London
    jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk/ejarr01 at students.bbk.ac.uk
  "As much as the vision of the blind man improves with the rising sun,
       So too does the intelligence of the fool after good advice."
       (Bishop Theodulf of Orleans, late-eight/early-ninth century)