Gig review: Mclusky @ ULU, Friday 26th November 2004

While the Strokes’ choreographed aloofness tends to get the better of them after two consecutive shows, and in the week when IPC darlings Blackwire made a mockery of their exalted status with a venue-emptying display in midweek, [url=http://mclusky.net]Mclusky[/url] look leaner and fitter after extensive tours of Europe and the US; set opener “Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues” has never sounded better, while the ferocious “Without MSG I am Nothing” is probably the best song anyone will hear anywhere this year; we’ve waited a while for this, and the boys from Cardiff don’t disappoint. Too often, words like “thrashy”, “dirty” and “discordant riff” are used by reviewers to excuse or justify the lack of melodies or feeling; when Andy Falkous and Jon Chapple grunt the song’s paranoid-mantra-cum-chorus (“Everywhere I look, it’s a darkness”) over a churning bassline, there’s no irony here, no purpose-sewn ripped jeans . “That Man Will Not Hang” is belted out “for contractual reasons”, while fans’ favourites from 2002’s “Do Dallas” album are also in abundance; namely “Alan is a Cowboy Killer” and “Chases”.

Mclusky react to hecklers with the cold defiance of a band who have had to fight every inch of the way to get where they are now, taking shit along the way from Sum 41 fans, Nashville Pussy longhairs, and the “passion is a fashion” sub editors who took one look at their haircuts and decided it wasn’t this year’s thing. And yet there’s plenty of dry humour in the mix. This is Mclusky’s biggest UK headline gig to date, and the band are on a different plane now, in terms of technical ability, and thankfully far, far away from the two-bit sound systems of venues like Upstairs at the Garage. Most significantly, the new material is harder, faster and more meaty than what came before. The previous day a guy on a bus was trying to persuade me that The Zutons were the future – hell, no, the PRESENT of rock ’n roll. I only wish he could have heard “Slay” on Friday. “1956 and All That” is a highlight of the set, which finishes with a thunderous version of “To Hell With Good Intentions”, and drummer Jack Eggelstone only stops playing once the drum kit has been ritually dismantled by a sweat-drenched, lunatic-eyed (yet bespectacled) Chapple. For a good half hour before kicking-out time, there’s a buzz about the place. Ten out of ten.