I Can Hear the Grass Grow

Two Fridays ago found me up in the hippie ‘burg of Boulder to catch The Fall, who played at the Boulder Theater. I hadn’t been to this venue since my junior year of college, and I hafta say I was impressed – a really nice spot, with great sound. It wasn’t too crowded, although the turnout was decent. Seeing that CU is out for the summer and that the show was at the beginning of the Memorial Day weekend, this probably would have been a bigger draw in D-town.

Local guy Dario Rosa (pleasant 60’s-esque pop tunes) got the evening started, and was followed by an odd music video deejay. This was one of the strangest things I’ve seen in some time – this guy had a DVD mixer, and mixed together all sorts of music footage. I recall seeing Donna Summer, Queen, Led Zeppelin, Michael Jackson, Sonny and Cher, and Elvis Presley. The effect was creepy at times, and hilarious at others – I enjoyed it. After a while, however, it got a good portion of the crowd pissed off. A few people had started voicing their displeasure, and then the deejay’s equipment froze up. Luckily, The Fall was waiting in the wings and immediately hit the stage.

At this point, I’ll admit that I was curious as to how The Fall would do – the band that leader Mark E. Smith brought over from England bailed on him less than two weeks prior to the Boulder date. Never one to give up easily, Smith (and his keyboardist wife) asked label mates The Cairo Gang to be his band for the remainder of the tour. Well, I certainly didn’t need to worry as these guys really stepped up and did a terrific job. Quite honestly, it was the best Fall show I’ve ever seen. If you’ve seen them before, you know what to expect - Mark E. Smith wandering around the stage, looking like your demented grandfather, while he rants away and sizes up the audience. Oh, and he likes to wander to the back of the stage and fiddle with the knobs on the musician’s amplifiers. What he did this time, which I’ve never seen him do before, was randomly grab a different microphone and drop the one he was previously singing into. He did this throughout the show, and even tossed a vocal mike into the bass drum a few times – soundmen have got to hate this guy! It all added up to a show that was both chaotic and entertaining. Another show to beat for 2006? You'd better believe it!

The set was mostly material from the last two Fall releases, Fall Heads Roll and The Real New Fall LP (formerly Country on the Click) - both worth your time if you’ve ever been a Fall fan (especially the latter). The only oldies I recognized were Wrong Place, Right Time and their cover of Mr. Pharmacist. Not too surprising, as Mark E. Smith has never been one to dwell in the past. He’s kept The Fall going for 30 years now, and while everything they’ve put out hasn’t been terrific their music has always been interesting. How many other artists can make that same claim? Not too many… Long live The Fall!