REVIEW: POP WILL EAT ITSELF AT CLWB IFOR BACH, CARDIFF (19/08/11)
In case you missed having wet dreadlocks flicked in your face at gigs, fear not, because Pop Will Eat Itself are back and on tour. With a new album out in October, and only one of the original members left in the current line up, you could be forgiven for thinking that it might be tricky to re-create PWEI’s brilliance of the early nineties, but from the first bars of “England’s Finest” it was clear that they were going to be on excellent form. Joined by Mary Byker from Gaye Bykers on Acid, Graham Crabb was clearly revelling in being back on stage, trying to instigate a little moshpit amongst his band members and grinning insanely at the crowd. The old hits were played faithfully, with the heavy grebo beats recreated perfectly. “Wise Up! Sucker” and “Get The Girl, Kill The Baddies”, and the more industrial “Ich Bin Ein Auslander”, “RSVP” and “Everything’s Cool” proved popular, but the lack of “Def Con One” left some puzzled and shuffling around at the end expecting another encore. The band gave a valiant attempt to shoehorn in some new tracks, which sounded diverting enough but not spectacular. It was all over by 9.45, leaving things feeling a bit sad and elderly at the end, but overall it was great to hear some evocative old tracks and pretend for a few short hours that it was 1991.
Words: Sarah Bridges
Photo: Jeff O’Brien via Flickr
