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6th August 2000 — The Fleece and Firkin, Bristol, UK
Setlist
Cloudless
Everywhere
Rêverie
Submarine
Flute
Breeze
To Be
Future
Shining Road
Paris and Rome
Lilies
Slide
Far Away
Adrift
Encore
"008"
Jewel
Adoration
Reviews
Well, my second ever Cranes gig (to my shame)! The venue was only 2 minutes away from my flat in Bristol, and I was curious to see how the gig would hold up from my previous live experience in Waremme, Belgium last year. The Fleece is one of those "must play" venues in Bristol in that, if your band manages to play there, then you have reached a certain degree of respectability. Every time I had been there before, the place had been packed, and so it came as a suprise to me that when the Cranes set began, the place was only at about 1/3 capacity with 50/60 people there. I guess that this must partially have been due to the massive lack of publicity for the band over the last few years; the majority of the crowd was dressed in the Cure/Goth tradition and could be heard making comments about "real 80's(!) music", and from general reactions to the set, I got the impression that most people were unaware of anything post-Loved. Certainly the biggest crowd reactions were to the singles of previous albums. Another suprise was the lack of a support band (I knew I should have offered! :).
Possibly then, the band sensed this also, as the set seemed largely to consist of the more traditional Cranes hits, like Jewel, Paris & rome, Everywhere, Adoration etc with only a token number of Population Four tracks thrown in. The highlight for me though, was the inclusion of 4 tracks that are to appear on the forthcoming album (due for release in october). The only one I had heard before was "Slide Song", so to hear 3 brand new tracks was quite a treat. What can I say about them? They were all 3 quite short (or maybe I just lost track of the time), and interestingly they involved quite a few dischords, electronic drums (with John playing live over them) and I'm sure I heard a few samples thrown in too. One of them was really quite funky, with a very simple bass, and drumms that cut out completely on occasion leaving just Jim's guitar wailing merrily, before everything rhythmically cut back in again. I'm quite looking forward to hearing the finished studio tracks.
The only down side for me was a symptom of the low crowd numbers, in that the audience was only able to sustain 10 seconds or so of polite applause on the most popular tracks. This was unfortunate in that it gave the (false) impression of lack of appreciation, and left a few mildly lengthly pauses between songs. (although Paul told me later that the set had been plagued with "technical dificulties", so maybe my impression was not too astute). To fill in, Ali decided to tell THAT joke (What does a fish say when it sees a wall?), much to the agonised groans of the audience! "Other" amusing moments in the set involved the bass-intro version of Jewel(?) in which Jim apparently forgot to turn his guitar on in time, and an incident in which Pauls guitar was totally not in tune about 3/4 songs in, and he had to switch to another half way! Still, I don't think the majority of onlookers noticed, and the gig was as intimate as ever, if slightly subdued. An interesting point was that Starblood was not played, but to be honest, I don't think that anybody really noticed.
Having a chat to Paul and Jim after the show (and failing miserably to get the setlist!), it turns out that Cranes are going to release their forthcoming album on their own independent record label! They apparently have a few good deals with distributers and stockists to make sure that their music can be found right where it should be (i.e. in the shops!), rather than solely on the internet where the fanbase is still limited, and hopefully there can be a little more self-promotion now (although notably Ali never mentioned that any of the 'new' songs were on a forthcoming album, apparently missing a golden opportunity). The forthcoming album, has still not completely been recorded - the deadline for this is the end of september, roughly a month before the day of release on the 24th october. Interestingly enough, the title of the album has still not been decided (it will definitely not be "It's a beautiful world", confirming earlier rumours at starblood.org in previous months), so if you have any suggestions then please send them in! Also, apparently Jims album of "instrumental" music is set to be released on the same day as the new album, so a double Cranes helping seems to be in the near future! Hopefully also, there will be a more "up to date" selection of artwork/promotional material - as much as i enjoy seeing the Loved artwork, and posters with Manu and Mark, it would be nice if Paul and John were to feature more prominently in upcoming releases.
All in all, a very enjoyable gig, although slightly marred by a low turnout. I can't wait for the new material.
- review by scott
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