Primal Scream @ The Forum
Sydney, 4th February, 2009 – with Wolf and Cub
Primal Scream is one of the bands in a special list in my head. This list is of bands that I know if I don’t see them now, I will never get a chance to see them. Bands that were at their height in the 90s, that went all quiet (or broke up) and have now come back…. just for me (or so I like to think). Dodgy, The Coral, The Jesus and Mary Chain… and now Primal Scream.
I managed to miss the support act Wolf and Cub, which is a bit disappointing, but being a Wednesday night at a venue that really doesn’t have the most direct public transport link from my house, meant that I wasn’t going to be there early. Plus someone was offering me a lift…. Beggars can’t be choosers. Anyway, managed to get a pretty good viewing spot (or so I thought) even turning up as late as I did.
I’m not sure whether I should be ashamed to admit it, but when the band walked on stage I couldn’t help myself from smiling like a village idiot and nearly weeing my pants. Bobby Gillespie! Mani!…. and the other ones…. I hadn’t really known what to expect.
I must say, and I nearly wish I didn’t have this opinion, that I was more excited about seeing them in person than I was impressed by their music. It was very loud (however we were standing in front of the largest speaker stack ever constructed) and bobby wasn’t really able to carry a tune, but the tight jeans and overall aura of awesomeness of them cancelled it out.
Bobby swung from wild arm waving to standing in a zombie-like state (I could have sworn he was looking at someone at the side of stage for a signal to begin singing again). Trying to determine whether Bobby was just out of it, or if he just naturally looks like a zombie, did occupy a large chunk of my brain. Not a lot of chit-chat, not coherent chit-chat anyway… but whether that was because he was a completely trollied or just Scottish, who can tell?
They played everything I wanted (except for Loaded, but I won’t whine about it)… I even had a bit of a sing-along with Movin’ On Up. Most importantly they played Suicide Sally and Johnny Guitar, because I do like a good song with my name in it.
So I can now cross another band off my list… and another member of the Stone Roses (one day I’ll see them all, I’m collecting them one by one). Brilliant!
Sally
Photos by Greg
