The Black Lips [Live] @ The Deaf Institute, Manchester

Wednesday 18th February 2009

Sharing much in common with the subject matter of one The Black Lips most loved songs, “Katrina”, this evening’s hurricane of a show is fast-paced, chaotic and endangers lives (more on that later). On tour in support of their forthcoming album, 200 Thousand Million, The Black Lips tear into their set from the off, no doubt still a little relieved to be able to do so following their near-jail experience in India. The enthusiastic, sweaty crowd in this packed venue, unquestionably the finest music venue in Manchester, were certainly thankful for their escape, demonstrating this a little too eagerly for the security’s liking. Numerous times a rather heavy handed Ross Kemp lookalike and his friend threw crowd surfers back into the throng with an annoyed rage, much to the displeasure of the band. Obviously the security hadn’t read up on the band, as the exact same thing has happened in London before, and the band were equally as irritated then. It all could have ended horribly for the security, after one particular over eager rebuffing of a fan resulted in Mr Kemp falling into the crowd, which then prompted his mate to run into the chaos to help him out and ensure he wasn’t trampled to death. It was all a little shocking to everyone else stood around this mess, but I guess you really should expect anything from a live experience that has previously seen guitarist Cole Alexander playing his instrument with his penis.

Away from the ‘Ross Kemp on Fans’ sideshow, as entertaining as this was, the gig was a breathtaking experience, not least because there was literally little air to breathe. Old favourites such as “Bad Kids”, “Not a Problem”, “Katrina” and “Dirty Hands” stirred the crowd into their giddy frenzy, but it was the new songs which were perhaps the most impressive. “Starting Over” should be sent back in time to the 60’s so it can achieve the Number 1 it clearly deserves. Another new song, “Elijah”,saw the band deviate from their usual garage rock sound, and infuse it with a little grunge to awesome effect, sounding like In Utero-era Nirvana with Cole Alexander’s strained howls reminiscent of Kurt Cobain at his most shrill. Cole, sporting a white poncho and what looked like a black witch’s hat, was as compelling as ever. He seemed to form the strongest love/hate bond with our friend Mr Kemp, and at one point looked set to take him on when he pushed him for manhandling a stage invader a little too firmly (a bit of a physical mismatch if nothing else). In addition to his usual phlegm catching stunt, he also jumped straight from the stage to the bar in one leap, and continued to play his guitar. I was just a little disappointed he didn’t get himself a drink whilst he was there.

As has always been the case with The Black Lips, they write songs strong enough to afford them the luxury of being able to display rock’n’roll histrionics without it being all they have in their locker, and therefore a bit pathetic. The Black Lips are made for compact, sweaty gigs like the one played this evening, so let’s hope the release of 200 Thousand Million doesn’t bring anything like those kinds of numbers in the future.