“Lush are hot hot hot and they’re gonna be huge huge huge!” I wrote that back in the day (gig 160, March 1990!) when Lush’s crush collision between Cocteau-ish dreamscapes and wild off-kilter (Throwing) Muse-ic made them the brightest new star in the rock firmament. A band who, for me at least, never quite lived up to that initial heady rush of burgeoning promise, diverting from the superb, scathing “Scar” EP into wispier, more ethereal soundscapes (in the process being dubbed vanguard members of the “Shoegaze” movement), often at the expense of the tunes. An excellent final album of irreverent “blazing pop tunes” (again, as I referred to them back in the day) saw them raise their profile in those Britpop mid-90’s, before the shocking suicide of drummer Chris Acland (a man whom I’d met at their earlier gigs, chatting about his beloved Spurs and finding him a level-headed, personable chap) brought the Lush story shuddering to a tragic and untimely close. Now (and perhaps spurred on – pardon the pun – by Ride’s similar successful return last year) another band scratching that reunion itch, it’ll be interesting to see which version of Lush will turn up tonight…
The
initial Roundhouse reunion show sold out in double-quick time, but I
sorted tix for the more favourable Saturday second night, heading off at
5 for a stuffy drive up to London on the hottest
day of the year. A crap journey – hold-ups on the M4 due to an
overturned car – saw me eventually hit the Roundhouse dead on 8, just as
support Spectres were taking the stage. A harsh, visceral laze-rock
sonic assault, this lot were obvious disciples of the
likes of Mould, Mascis and even Killing Joke, in the art of guitar
abuse for the purposes of making an unholy and cacophonous racket. Their
3rd number “Pushing On The Signs” was a hazy, druggy slow-burn wig-out
in contrast to the faster-paced rest of the set,
but the subsequent number was a careering dystopian hell-ride with an
insistent repetitive hook (“I’ll never… forget it…”) and the best number
in the set. The noise assault may be their primary focus, but scratch
the surface and there’s melodic promise there.
Their brutal final number featured tumbling drums and the vocalist/
guitarist using a bottle as a guitar pick!
Ran
into gig buddy Andy Fenton and his mate Nigel Stone – they’d caught a
train up earlier, hitting the World’s End pub early doors and were
therefore suitably, erm, “well-refreshed”. Some lairy
and entertaining rock chat (basically the boys persuading me to go to
“Indietracks”!) passed the time quickly before the lights smashed to
black and Lush took the smoke-swathed stage at 9.20. “Wow!” exclaimed
Lush vocalist Miki Berenyi, “lovely to see everyone
in such a good mood!” as the band eased into the chiming guitar opening
of a lovely “De-Luxe”. This was followed by the pounding drums and
shimmering guitar work of “Breeze”, the harmony evolving into a
call-and-response vocal interplay, with guitarist Emma
taking the harmony line. All going well at this point, with the
ever-personable Miki in good fooling as well, admitting, “against my
best intentions, I got absolutely hammered last night!”, asking, “anyone
here last night? [If so,] sorry about the same outfit,” and quipping, “we’re hanging in Camden on a Saturday night – it’s like
the last 20 years never happened! Actually, we’re so un-rock’n’roll
right now – our guest list is full of school governors!”
A moody "Hypocrite" and a resonant, echoey “Etherial”, embellished by
Burundi-esque drumbeats, bookended a set mid-section largely harking back to their shoegazey, Cocteaus-ish material, drifting by in a
gossamer haze – a nice vibe, but for me rather etherial (ironically)... The moody, off-kilter strumalong
opening of subsequent oldie “Scarlet” upped the tempo a tad, although it was also rendered very politely, a growl or three short of the
sinister, seething beast on record. Fair enough, I guess we're all out of the flush of youth, the angst and anger propelling those initial tunes now replaced by the experience of maturity...
“For
Love”, dedicated to Chris (“remember [him] as the happy happy person he
was”), was a highlight, followed by the well-intentioned newie
“Out Of Control”, dedicated to victims of bullying. Miki then announced, “have a little dance to
this one,” to the flippant, Britpop-darling period “Ladykillers”,
documenting a different type of Camden Saturday night, and giving the
gig a real shot in the arm. “Downer”,
next up, was excellent – a brilliantly rendered lustrous, punkish careering thrash overlaid
by gorgeous harmonies, and easily my favourite of the evening. Another lovely “Sweetness And Light” chimed out
an overall uneven set, a couple of encores unnecessary bookends for me,
but enabling Miki to fulsomely thank all
and sundry for this “celebration”.
Grabbed
a set-list thanks to a friendly security bloke, then hung out
(ultimately in vain) for my 2 drunken gig buddies before wearily
crossing town, back to the car for midnight and home at a red-eyed
1.20. Reflecting on the performance, it was probably pretty much what I
expected, starting well, drifting a bit in the middle and finishing very strongly, with the (very) early material (particularly set highlight “Downer”) and later stuff (“Ladykillers”) shining albeit
for different reasons, and the more textural
shoegazey mid-period very dreamy and atmospheric, but some of it lacking a bit of oomph in comparison to the rest... Don't get me wrong, I totally enjoyed it and glad I hauled ass from the 'don for this one, but it remains to be seen whether this is a bookend on the Lush story, or a new chapter in the writing. Either way I'll be interested, but I'm not so sure that they're going to be hot hot hot and huge huge
huge now...
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