JSU Live Review




ICA, London
Monday 9th Febrary 2004




ICA COOL SQUIRE!

Some might question why John Squire is playing a venue like the ICA this late into his career and if he had still been with the Roses then they'd be playing stadiums now. I think, from a real fan's point of view it's an amazing venue. I never dreamt that I'd go to a concert and be a couple of metres from the legend that is John Squire, watch his fingers slide up and down the guitar and churn out those classic solos so closely, you wouldn't have been offered that opportunity in a stadium packed with tens of thousands of fans.

Squire and his band walked on stage at about 9.40pm after the supporting act The Blueskins (who played 8.30pm to about 9.10pm). The Blueskins were well worth seeing as well, very loud but rhythmic and their tunes were very catchy, although I couldn't really make out any of the words.

John and all his band sounded great and although the crowd wasn't jumping around all over the place, (remember that the album's not out until next week (Mon 16/02/2004), so most haven't heard the tunes - I think I was the only one in there singing along to the MH tracks!) there was a lot of toes tapping and nodding in approval. The whole place livened up every time a Roses track was played and there was a great response to the two TCE tracks that he played (I Miss You and Time Changes Everything).

He played his fair share of Roses tracks on last years tours and some questioned the need for him to play any more now he's got two albums worth of material behind him - I think that Marshall's House is a big move away from Time Changes Everything (he only played two tracks from it) - but when you see the reaction to the Stone Roses tunes, it's obvious. Everybody still wants to hear them and a lot of people were singing along that night. Incidentally, John did leave most of the main guitar parts for the Roses tracks for his second guitarist, except for the solos of course.

There were a few surprises in the choice of Roses tracks that he played, 'Sugar Spun Sister' and 'Shoot You Down' were two songs I didn't think I'd hear again live. He did also play a unique intro to Ten Storey Love Song, much more power-chord fuelled than the jingly-jangly intro of the single version. Squire challenged the audience "Let's see if you can guess this one" before launching into it.

After playing a huge set of 16 tunes, he joked with the audience "now fuck off home", only to come back on minutes later to play an amazing trio of encores ('Tightrope', 'Fools Gold' and new album outro track 'Gas') which drew the audience into a major sing-a-long, with a arms thrusting into the air then a total freak-out, with his funky version of our cult anthem.



Set-list

01.	Hotel Room
02.	Marshall's House
03.	Lighthouse & Buildings
04.	Shoot You Down
05.	Automat
06.	Cape Cod Morning
07.	Ten Storey Love Song
08.	I Miss You
09.	Room In Brooklyn
10.	Time Changes Everything
11.	How Do You Sleep
12.	People In The Sun
13.	Summertime
14.	Tables For Ladies
15.	Waterfall
16.	Sugar Spun Sister
Encore	Tightrope
Encore	Fools Gold
Encore	Gas

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