My third gig this month (with three more still to go), and our fourth time seeing Mr Tom Shear (previously London 2015, Manchester 2017 and London 2018!). I'm actually quite astounded that the last time was seven years ago (the tour for 'Endure', one of his best albums ever) and to be honest I thought we'd seen him more than three times... but apparently not.
After much rushing to get to the Corporation, we arrived and climbed the stairs to the upstairs room (why not the big room?) just as Mari Kattman (Tom's wife) was starting her support set. The first song was okay, sounding not unlike Assemblage 23 truth be told, but after that it got a lot more hit and miss and a lot less interesting. Mari herself rather reminded me of Charlotte Church in her 'Crazy Chic' phase, with her shirt hanging off her arms and her 'drunk girl in a nightclub' stage moves.
While by no means awful, it wasn't really that inspiring either and I don't feel like there's any need to investigate Mari's musical output any further.
As ever the Corporation didn't disappoint us with it's ramshackle collection of strange people, among them a couple of transvestites, a girl with a dragon on her shoulder and a chubby bloke with a mullet and a moustache wearing a decidedly unflattering crop top. Honestly, I've never felt more fuddy or duddy.
Assemblage 23 are the real deal when it comes to electronic music, and while the last album 'Mourn' was a little bit disappointing after the previous three (maybe FIVE) masterpieces, it was still good by anyone else's standards and it has grown on me over the years. Tom has a new album coming soon and tonight saw three new tracks being aired for the first time alongside a slew of classics including 'Disappoint', 'Drive', 'Document' and 'Naked'.
We also got 'Bravery' (the sole track played from 'Endure' unfortunately), 'Damaged', 'Ground', 'Complacent', 'Opened', 'Let Me Be Your Armor' and best track of the night by a country mile 'The Noise Inside My Head' from Bruise (so NOTHING from 'Compass', for fuck's sake!).
Okay, the guy has a lot of good songs and he was never going to be able to play all of them, but I must admit the tracklist wasn't the best and I would definitely have swapped out some of the older songs for more from Bruise and Compass, and judging by the reaction to 'The Noise Inside My Head' perhaps the crowd would have agreed with me too.
Still, it was a good show and Tom exuded plenty of energy, with a nice big empty stage to stomp around on. I'm not sure finishing with a brand new song was the best idea ever (seems to be the new thing, that) but it was okay. At least we finished the show on an energetic new song after the depressing (but excellent) couplet of 'Disappoint' and 'Damaged'.
Hopefully Tom will return for more shows next year once the new album is released as it would definitely be good to see him perform again soon.
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