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IQ |
Mean Fiddler, London Saturday December 11 2004 |
| Wow, what a night that was. Me and Fran Tuckett steamed up to the
Mean Fiddler, and got in there just in time to miss the opening strains of
Darkest Hour. 7:30pm start? What's that all about? Anyway, the band was on, so without further ado, we hit the upstairs bar.
Suitable refreshed, we scanned the crowd for any familiar faces. Or heads, at least. Finally spotted some of the usual suspects during the second number, which was a stunning rendition of It All Stops Here, and we made our way to the front to stand alongside Vinnie De Loux, Jenny Till, Robert Ball, Hogweed, Heike and assorted Germans. Oh what a crowd. |
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The next track was Sacred Sound from their recent album Dark Matter. I've never not heard this album yet, but at the time, I swore to myself that first thing Monday I was going to HMV or Virgin to get it. I didn't, I bought a coffee and Danish to go, but the thought was there. Anyway, I can only recommend that all you Muppets out there who haven't got this album yet, should get it right now. And that includes me. As ever, the background light show was riveting and spot welding. |
| Then they launched into the classic Outer Limits before playing another new track, Born Brilliant. Which is brilliant! | |
| Finally, Subterranea has been reduced to just one track,
Failsafe, which is an outstanding track (even more so on the album...) which was then followed by a cracking version of
Awake & Nervous, dedicated to those of us who used to follow the band in the deep dark days of The Marquee gigs and things and stuff.
The hilariously titled "Wiggles Peak" trotted along next - that was really Widow's Peak, if you hadn't guessed - and kept the crowd merry. The final new song, Harvest of Souls, was next, but due to time constraints or something, they had to miss out the next song. Was it Leap of Faith, or was it Stomach of Animal? We'll never really know. |
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Seventh House finished off the main set in a brilliantly Christmassy festive way, complete with slide show of rotting corpses.
The band left the stage to rapturous applause from their roadies, and some of the crowd, before returning with the Marvin Offord sung Promises, followed by the only other cover of the night Jet which mingeled with a classic IQ medley. The gig was finished off in fine style with The Wake and Headlong, before the crowd were showered with champagne and given roses by the security staff. We hung around in the piss-soaked alley outside the venue for a while, bumping into old Nick May, who was hawking copies of a sampler disk he was giving away. Then we struck off to the après-gig party at the (secret location) where we mingled with the stars and band for a while, before being told to get out and stop scrounging.
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