Narc. Magazine Online
Reliably informed
Lee Hammond enjoys an impactful show celebrating their seminal album, XTRMNTR
Image by George Driver
Opening the evening with youthful exuberance and bounding around the stage are London-based quintet The Paris Match, polar opposites to headliners Primal Scream’s mature topical grit. It’s a full-on opening set, with their swagger, a Ramones cover, and a plethora of their own boisterous tracks all proving a treat for those in attendance. There’s a striking difference between The Paris Match’s on-stage presence and their records; live they are a completely different animal, those light sunny tracks taking on a whole different atmosphere and really lighting up tonight’s crowd.
They pave the way for Primal Scream to put on an absolutely incredible show. XTRMNTR is a masterpiece and tonight it gets a full front-to-back outing. It’s an album that feels like an industrial wall of noise at times, the bass thumping, the accompanying visuals mesmerising, Kill All Hippies bleeding into Accelerator. Many of tonight’s tracks are cut with both old and new visuals, those for Swastika Eyes in particular depicting atrocities happening across the world. Whilst the political themes the album engages with are there for all to see, it never becomes tired or laboured, with Bobby Gillespie only pausing briefly to address them and allowing the music to speak for itself. What is shown is impactful and powerful whilst remaining complimentary to this incredible album.
The two instrumentals provide some of the trippier moments of the night, particularly MBV Arkestra (If They Move Kill Them), this noise-filled electronic banger is set to an ever-swirling backdrop that fills the venue with its incessant freak out. The second outing of Swastika Eyes (Chemical Brothers mix) feels like a gut punch when the bass hits and the previous track’s angry noise rock colliding headlong with ecstatic rave only serves to enforce its power and the accompanying visuals.
They close out on Shoot Speed/Kill Light before disappearing for a short time only to come back and take on the ‘hits’ section. A band like Primal Scream aren’t short of hits, and tonight you really couldn’t ask for more, with crowd-pleasers Loaded, Movin’ On Up, Country Girl, and Rocks closing out an amazing night. XTRMNTR really was the star of the show though, the hits are what they are, but that album played in full was out of this world!
