With a growing reputation for disappointing shows and a decidedly questionable demeanor, James Lavelle had a lot to prove at his Sydney sideshow. UNKLE, or what is now known as such, has been continually changing and evolving since its conception as a project between Lavelle and trip-hip legend DJ Shadow on the seminal album Psyence Fiction.
While the choice of venue was superb, the support act did little to create the mood. Subaudible Hum were, to be honest, distinctly boring. Whether it was simply that they were the wrong genre, or that their songs grew repetitive, or merely that their bass player had a ridiculous stance and extravagant fringe – there was definitely something wrong. To their credit, their level of musicianship was impressive and the frontman had a superb Fourth Floor Collapse-esque voice, but all in all it was a confusing choice of support for a crowd lusting after dark beats and samples.
After a ridiculous comedy of errors from the set-up crew (one guy actually had to make hand motions to the sound crew for about 30 seconds to make him turn off The Verve on the overhead speakers), the band finally took to the stage. And what a sight they were.
The only familiar face on stage was that of James Lavelle – and even then you had to look twice to make sure it wasn’t actually Bon Jovi trying to fool us all. Lavelle, clad all in black, sparkled with 80s diamontees and aviator sunglasses. His band were likewise a group of misfits – a guitarist who could have been in Panic at the Disco, a singer who could have been, well, passed out backstage at any moment… The rock clichés just kept coming.
There are two ways to review what happened next. One is as the band who released War Stories – in essence a rock band. The other is as a product of what was once a dark trip-hop collaboration, spearheaded by one of the best DJs in the world. I will start with the first. It’s less cruel.
Don’t get me wrong – War Stories is a good album. Burn My Shadow is a good song. I had hoped that this would translate into a powerful live set. In some ways, this was true. What seemed to be endless guitar-driven power rock filled the Metro and burst a few eardrums, but moved most of the audience to only a mild case of what is commonly called ‘rocking out’.
It was almost feasible to think that Lavelle was merely an accessory to the whole show. There was no impressive turntableism, no clever reworking of songs – just clearcut renditions of tracks from the album, with James hovering behind his gear and motioning for handclaps during almost every song. Sometimes he would come and sing with the band – for example during Lonely Soul, one of the only tracks played that didn’t come from War Stories.
And here we move on to the next approach of reviewing. As the crowd heard the words “Now we’ll play a track from our first album,” there was a collective buzz of anticipation. Many, however, were doomed to disappointment. There are those of the opinion that UNKLE is just not UNKLE since the loss of Shadow – that everything since then has been merely a parody of what they initially created.
Having watched Shadow spin Lonely Soul at one of his sets, seamlessly merging it with other tracks and doing things to it I never thought were possible, I gazed up at the mismatched rock band before me and realised some of the truth in this statement. It was easy to forget that this was the ‘original’ song, not some second-rate cover at some second-rate rock show.
There is not much more I can say about the show without risking sounding even more negative – except that to hear songs like Rabbit in Your Headlights and Eye for an Eye in a live environment did somewhat set my spine a-tingling. In the end, the show rested more on the merits of the original songs than the performance itself, and the crowd knew it.
As Lavelle put it, “Are you going to give us some fucking love or what?” Not likely, sir. Not likely.
