Wednesday 5 January 2011

182 CARTER THE UNSTOPPABLE SEX MACHINE, Genius Freak, Reading University, Saturday 9 March 1991

My first gig of 1991 - in March! - after a hectic couple of months which saw me move out of my parents' place. This must be what a mortgage does for you! Had a carload down for this one, and hit the bar on arrival, only seeing half of the support band's noisy set as a result!

Since I last saw Carter USM they've become the burgeoning indie crowd's latest darlings thanks to NME championing. Unfortunately this popularity breeds hordes of spotty teenage student fans with identikit "30-Something" sweatshirts. Where were this lot one year ago, let alone at the Astoria back in 1986?

Ouch - enough of this "I saw them first" attitude, just enjoy their success you cynical git. Anyway, Carter USM played a manic set, relying heavily on the aforementioned "30-Something" LP, but featuring a storming "Re-Educating Rita" and 3 encores, with lots of dry ice smoke and white light adding to the excitement. Good stuff overall - despite the success, they've still got it!

1 comment:

  1. Yay, I was at this one! It was my first Carter gig, I made it to about 20 more after this. The video for the re-issued Sheriff Fatman was filmed here - I appear on screen for one second during the first "valium, amphetamines". They played Sheriff Fatman twice. I think this gig still holds the record for the most people I have seen in a bar being ill/sick through drink, luckily I wasn't one of them.

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