| home |
But if tonight's show x-posed another person to their warped delights, then vindication goes entirely to Capital Radio PLC. Well, maybe... And, right on cue, this is the Bassoon at their mercurial, unstoppable best; simply placing one heart-in-mouth moment after another, and effortlessly reaching more polarized extremes in one song than many bands find in a whole career. 'Leyline N16', just for starters, begins by dropping you off a cliff and only proceeds to get more amazing. It's the most fuck-you anti-intro ever, all skewed riffs and elusive time changes, which finally breaks to a gorgeous clarinet weaving in and out of the soaring chaos. No matter how many times you see this band and hear these songs, they never fail to amaze, forever revealing new sides of their personality and throwing in new cameos that refresh even the oldest material. Even on 'Celestial Backlash', a simple summer breeze of a song by Bassoon standards, you're never quite sure of pinning then down; and, rightly enough, that loping groove steadily mutates into a gloriously full rock epic. But through the intricate swathes, a piercing clarity prevails. 'Wise Guy' - the big pop hit - may whip itself into an awesome storm, but the clarinet remains the focus as the guitars swirl malevolently around it. Such is their sense of theatre that they can even afford to close an all-too-short set with a lilting jazz number, 'Spoils', and still leave a dark, foreboding atmosphere in their wake. It only dissipates when they are narrowly denied a richly deserved encore, but perhaps, finally, the Bassoon are starting to subvert the mainstream from within. And about bloody time too. Steve |