stage crew to sort out the Hawks gear. Tim and Richard wandered on, then Dibs, then Dave (around ten to eleven). I think Dave was getting restless and around 23:00 you could make out him running his pick down the strings of his guitar – however, there was no sound coming from the PA so when the band then started the opening number, Black Corridor’ you could barely make out anything above the crowd chatter. Then the PA (finally) kicked in mid-recital and we were off. The set was as follows:
Black Corridor: Aerospaceage Inferno: Splashfin; The Awakening: Orgone Accumulator: You Know You're Only Dreaming: Orgone Accumulator: Abducted: Time We Left: Who's Gonna Win The War: Arrival In Utopia: Assassins Of Allah: Space Is Their (Palestine): Assassins Of Allah: Paradox: Lighthouse: Right To Decide: Sonic Attack: Damnation Alley: Encore - Flying Doctor: Second encore: Spirit Of The Age:
The gig started off just as the Wyefest had done, and I was hoping for a set change (having missed Hawkfest 2008) – the first such change was Time We Left following Dibs' version of Abducted. Jason then proceeded to play some piano in Em, D, C – I wouldn’t have been surprised if this was a slightly enlongated introduction to Paradox, but no, it was Who's Gonna Win The War (!) sung by Richard with Dave joining in for the chorus. I'd never heard this one live before so I was pleased at it’s (re)introduction. The backdrop played rockets firing on a building at night (could be Iraq footage?). The only downside is that it went on too long, nearly ten minutes. It’s one song where nobody seemed to know when / where to end it. Following this, Arrival In Utopia had the ‘Death Trap riff’ and Dibs' spoken part.
Assassins Of Aalla had Tim playing the intro and sounded different from previous versions, though it still included Space Is Their. Dibs didn’t remember all the "It is written…in the soul of the desert" etc. parts. n Then we had the current regulation arrangement of Paradox. The piano is too similar to the intro to Who's Gonna Win The War, imo - see above.
Tim spoke the intro (Captain's Log) from Lighthouse, though Dave sang – there was some banter between Dave and Tim about Captain's dreams before the song started. Then we got a completely different sounding Right To Decide – probably because there was no background synth as on Electric Teepee / trio versions. I liked it but perhaps it didn’t rock like the original. For Sonic Attach we got, dancers with bicycle wheels (I cringe at that) before Damnation Alley, which was good but Dave’s guitar was lost in the mix, lots of Tim solo (very good).
The encore was Flying Doctor with Dibs apologising that the curfew meant they couldn’t play any more – but the band trooped back on stage within a couple of minutes and Dave announced that they were allowed to continue, so they would play a sing-a-long number, Spirit Of The Age. And that was it.
Personally, I enjoyed this more than the previous month's Wyefest, probably due to the set change. Tim enjoyed himself and was either very high in the mix or inaudible, depending on what the sound guy was thinking. Dave’s guitar was way too low in the mix, leaving Jason’s piano too high. Dibs' bass was very bassy, not in an Alan Davey way, but more in turning all the treble off and all the bass on his controls up! Decent response from the crowd, but it had been a long day, and it was a long drive home… |
