JSU Live Review




The Metro, Oxford Street, London
Tuesday 7th September 2004




THE DEVILS WERE ALIVE AND WELL AND IN LONDON!








After treading round London all afternoon and eventually getting to The Metro at 8pm, it was straight to the bar, soon after King Rat took to the stage, sadly I didn't think they got going until half-way through their last song (they performed a semi-acoustic set).

On stage next in the second support slot were Rising Times, who in contrast were well loud from the first chord, a remedy for the last set and I found myself nodding along throughout their whole set, (will definitely be checking out their EP when it's out) certainly put me in the right mood for The Yards, who were next to walk onstage.

After haranguing them for long enough (Stu and Chris kindly signing CDs) they launch into new album track 'Forget Your Regrets'. 'Get Off My Back', from the Devil EP, a perfect live rendition.

Next up they play the current single 'Only Myself To Blame', as I said in my review, a great track on record and just as good live, Stuart Fletcher's basslines on the end half on the track really standing out for me. Then Chris Helme says (something like), "this one's 'California', it's a b-side but it's too good to be a b-side" and he's right, I instantly liked the studio version, which has the similar, heavier, darker vibe of 'Devil' and again, it translates brilliantly to live performance.

'Pure' is the next track, originally a demo from 2002 and I thought it would've been long taken off the playlist, but there it was, thankfully, a fairly haunting piano intro from keyboardist John Hargreaves, Chris Helme planting a perfect vocal, fed by the rest of the rhythm section and it spirals off into a proper frenzy as the main solo and key-pounding notes kick in before the track fades out. 'Million' was apparently written in the last few days and Chris tells us it's about winning the lottery but losing the ticket.

"Hopefully we won't have to play this much longer", says Helme and then they launch into 'The Devil Is Alive And Well And In DC', one of the best known Yards' tunes. I certainly hope that they play it a little while longer as they're note-perfect (again) live, one of lead guitarist Chris Farrell's strings breaks mid-point through the manic outro but he carried on regardless, with noone in the audience any the wiser. 'Fireflies' is next (it first appeared on Chris' solo website 2001/2, I believe) but here it's been fattened out with layers of basslines, extra guitar and keyboards. The band finish the set with 'Mr Soul', another new track (not on the forthcoming album), which is the perfect end to a great set.

Helme's performance tonight was near flawless (not missing a single note), as was the rest of the band, Stuart Fletcher is one of the best bassist's I've seen live and the whole band play like they're loving every note which is what it's all about.

Nice group of lads, who just happen to be very talented, all the best to them with their debut album out later this month.






Set-list

01.	Forget Your Regrets
02.	Get Off My Back
03.	On The Inside
04.	Only Myself To Blame
05.	California
06.	Pure
07.	Million
08.	The Devil Is Alive And Well And In DC
09.	Fireflies
10.	Mr Soul

Thanks to Chris and Stuart for signing my US Do It Yourself CD!






More pics added 10/09/04, thanks to Ealdst for sending his pictures.





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