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[spellchecker]

it was fucking great, it was.

support 1 was kid606, some 24 year old guy that is also on ipecac. sounded interesting from the write up bio on the ipecac site, but was less interesting to watch and listen too. reminded me a bit of atari teenage riot. electro techno jungle babble came to mind. just one guy and his laptops, a lot of the audience liked it a lot, so fair play.

support 2 was some 14 piece woodwind/string/brass band from belgium, that sounded ... well, it's hard to describe. at times they were like the cantina bar band from tatooine. they were quite eclectic but well orchestrated and were remnant at times of mr bungle's first and last albums. they had an accordion player that was a spitting image of dave bradley. some great and interesting vocals too. i had though that they might actually be there to play some of the backing music for fantômas but alas it was not so. really enjoyable actually, must try and find out what they were called.

the anticipation in the air when fantômas came on was pretty electric. mike patton had walked past loads of us waiting in the queue, and didn't look particularly friendly or happy, so I was a little unsure of what the performance was going to be like, or what his reaction to the audience would be like.

if you didn't know any fantômas material and you had witnessed the gig, you probably would have thought of the gig more as a set or performance, more than a setlist being played. however, they did infact play a lot of material of the first album and also director's cut. the best way to describe the set is that it was a performance of choice parts of delirium cordia that lasted for around 90 minutes, interspliced very smoothly and technically with songs from the first album and director's cut.

one of the things that amazed me from the start was that they had nobody else helping out with instrumentation. mike did use a lot of samples, mostly for delirium cordia. it consisted mainly of multi-vocal parts or sound effects like intense low frequency sound or atmospheric wind noises.

something else that can't be escaped is the talent of all the musicians playing in the band. i have never, ever seen anyone play in the way that dave lombardo does. it was intense and jaw-droppingly attention grabbing. i've seen danny carey from tool play and he is a great drummer, but more in a technical way. the ferocity and precision of dave lombardo really astounded me. he actually performed live a great quantity of the percussive sounds that are heard on delirium cordia. he had all these weird cymbals that span round and made weird noises almost like wind chimes. buzz osborne and trevor dunn were really good too, they certainly kept pace with all that was going on and added a lot of atmosphere, but really for me, the show focused on dave lombardo and mike patton, just because they put in such amazing performances.

i've a lot of admiration for mike patton, because i think he's a great composer and song writer, and obviously is a gifted singer. i also like ipecac and the way they do things. for example, there must have been around 1500-2000 people at the gig (not sure, it was the astoria and it was packed.. but i don't know the capacity). they could have made a killing on merchandise, etc. Yet, t-shirts were only 10 quid, and you could get a jacket for 20 quid. three years ago, i was at a fear factory gig where they were selling the same jackets for 40 quid, albeit with a different band logo! anyway, watching mike patton live is a memory that i will hold for a long time... the way the band was positioned onstage was actually quite insular, dave lombardo and mike patton were facing each other from opposite sides of the stage, though I think that was because of the difficult task of orchestrating delirium cordia's material. they certainly pulled it off anyway. mike would often alternate between 3 or 4 different microphones seemlessly... the set was obviously well rehearsed, yet, at the same time, the way that he went crazy and lost it for some of the first album material made you think it was like the first time he'd got to perform his favourite song in the world. a lot of the fantomas vocals sound like they would be really hard to reproduce live, yet he never quivered, quibbled, wavered or anything throughout the performance.

up until about 40 minutes into the set, none of the band had actually said anything to the audience, but by this time you could tell that the band had warmed to the crowd and that they had become comfortable with their surroundings. the first words mike patton uttered to crowd were in a half-a-second gap between pages from the first album, saying simply

aw'wight guvnor

from that moment on, it was like you couldn't shut him up. the running joke for the night began at that point: at the astoria, immediately after the fantômas gig, Emma Bunton was going to be singing for the G.A.Y. clubnight that runs at the Astoria on saturdays. In between songs were littered references to 'shit spice' as she became affectionately known. i guess you had to be there, but it was nice to see mike interacting with the crowd and generally just having a laugh.

the highlight of the hilarity was probably a couple of songs from the end when mike was introducing the band, and described buzz osborne as the notorious F-A-G. at this point the light crew got in on the joke and lit the huge 30ft "G.A.Y." lights at the back of the stage.

definitely one of the best gigs i've been to.

[RF Scott]

i hate you for being at that show. but thanks for the review. I saw tomahawk last year, but would have preferred fantomas. pah, pah. pah. damn

[bryn]

havent heard fantomas, though its patton, so it should be good!

[RF Scott]

he has released some crap - the first mr. bungle album anyone?

[bryn]

Fucking brilliant album!! you no like it???

[RF Scott]

no, its absolutely awful, i hate it. i'm glad mike patton has grown out of that horrible phase. its an awful album, i hate it.

[bryn]

no no, its genuis music, the musicianship, the changes, pattons twisted lyrics

Possible the best bungle album, but claifornia is brilliant.

[RF Scott]

hahaha no

[bryn]

yes

[RF Scott]

i'd like to clarify that i was saying 'no' to the s/t album comment, not california. california is a perfect slice of pop, for the most part. Disco volante, however, is very very good.