Review: The Slits
A night of juddering contrasts befell Clwb Ifor Bach last week. Post-punk pioneers The Slits, reunited two years ago came to hawk a new album and let those of a certain age reminisce and younger members to taste a time that wasn’t theirs.
But being chronologically correct, mention must be made of Wet Dog, the sole support act. Wet Dog are an art-rock all female three piece for the most part (a fourth person parped a tuba disingenuously for one song) who are signed to Angular, a hit and miss label in extremis. Wet Dog are one of their misses. I assume they attempt to channel The Raincoats in their shambolicness. But where as The Raincoats had charm and tunes, Wet Dog do not. Horrible name, horrible sound.
The Slits soon followed, as Ari Up the lead singer articulated the bands chagrin at the 10pm curfew. They ripped through their big numbers (a.k.a. anything off their first album Cut) at the start of set and although enjoyable and a relief, most bands of The Slits ilk tend to hold back the hits in either reverence or disdain, thoughts soon turned to what was to follow for the remainder of the set.
It was around this time that I noticed the original guitarist Viv Albertine was not present and that the drummer looked like a primary school teacher.
After their brilliant post-punk mutant-disco take of the Motown classic Heard It Through The Grapevine things got embarrassing. Maybe it’s me, ok it certainly is me but I don’t feel comfortable with white people playing reggae, especially older people. I know I shouldn’t feel awkward but I find it smacks of a lack of authenticity. Especially when played to a room filled with white faces.
Awkward stiff skanks and winds flittered and fluctuated through the crowd, the scene was one of an atrocious wedding reception where bride and groom came from widely different cultures and one half of the party was attempting to appropriate the other’s conventions after a day of Bucks Fizz and vol-au-vents. This piqued when a couple where brought up on stage to wind and grind. I felt ashamed to watch. Like a car-crash on the other side of the motorway, I couldn’t take my eyes off the macabre scene. X-Factor has nothing on this for public humiliation.
The dreaded line “This is a track from our new album” was uttered only the once, the sharp intake of breath within the room palpable. The gig lurched forward, rescued when The Slits finished with Typical Girls and an awkward stage invasion.
This wasn’t a typical gig for sure. It felt false in parts withonly two original members (any less and they’d have to play in The Globe a.k.a. Tribute Town), with my hang up about white people and reggae and with the bonhomie rather than the spit and the rage.
But then again maybe it was always meant to be that way; to challenge attitudes as well as the ears is punk after all, no?
4 Comments – Post a comment
jackieladbroke
Commented 31 months ago - 13th October 2009 - 15:18pm
horrible.
jackieladbroke
Commented 31 months ago - 13th October 2009 - 15:19pm
horrible review
jackieladbroke
Commented 31 months ago - 13th October 2009 - 15:20pm
where are my horrible comments?
Sam (Sub-Editor)
Commented 31 months ago - 15th October 2009 - 19:12pm
TheSprout operates a pre-moderation system for everything uploaded and with our focus on the relaunch and redesign, the system is a bit slower than it usually is. Please see the article "Sprout Announcement" (http://www.thesprout.co.uk/news/1177/sprout-announcement.html) on the front page for more info.
Sam