The Junction, Cambridge
9 July 2001
For whatever bizarre reason, this gig couldn’t be advertised. Having found out about it, having already missed Tricky’s appearance at Robert Wyatt’s South Bank Meltdown, and noting that his only other UK appearances this tour were at the V2001 festival and Penrith (remember Withnail spitting this town’s name out in a phone box? – yes, that Penrith), I had to check it out. I’d only seen Tricky before at Glastonbury, where I was totally blown away by his metallic trance, so different from his recordings, so unimpressive to everyone gathered to see Blur aftewards. His new album, Blowback, was suitably tickling me, and two of the tracks (“Girls” and “Bury the Evidence”) hinted closer than ever at his live sound. Seeing him at the sweaty little Junction got me highly expectant.
In short, I wasn’t disappointed. Opening with the grinding synth sounds of “You Don’t Wanna” was a nice teaser. The track pounded nicely, his new singer Ambersunshower seemed pretty damn good, but Tricky stood with his back to the audience skinning up for the duration. He’s not the most audience-friendly performer, but he’s a good performer, and uses his stand-offishness to great effect, underlining the edgy build-up flavour of most of his live stuff by holding back, holding back, holding back, then letting rip.
Letting rip… ah yes, the next track was “Bury the Evidence”, where his new right-hand rapper Hawkman (did he know about MC Hawking when he chose the name?) kicked in. Ragga metal is what this is. Most people would close with a track like this. Then straight into “Lyrics of Fury”, where Ambersunshower blew everyone away with her rapping (even my friend who really hated her name), Tricky mirrored the vocals, and the guitarist with his axe round his knees slapped on some wah-wah speed metal, taking it miles above the sparse bony beats of the recorded version. It reminded me of seeing Primal Scream do “Don’t Fight It, Feel It” for the first time, the already great sparse squelchy dance track suddenly sounding like it’d been sabotaged by Lemmy.
A couple of Maxinquaye trip-hoppy favourites (“Overcome” and “Pumpkin”) made an appearance, but only the first managed to avoid an ascent into guitar-driven heaviosity. Tricky’s too eclectic by nature to avoid little diversions like “Diss Never” and an ultra-fast track I didn’t recognise with a very young, apparently local, guest rapper. But his focus in live shows is unswerving, and each track – the glorious new “Excess”, the great B-side with Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” running through it (“Anti-Histamine”), “Girls”, “Give It To ‘Em” – follows the same trajectory, building up a hypnotic, grinding wash of massive guitars backed by ultra-heavy P-Funk grooves, with Tricky trying to shake his head off his shoulders, shaking madly, and screaming key lyrics as mantras over the noise.
I was nearly finished off by the time he did the track that hinted, right in the middle of Maxinquaye’s sweet darkness, at his live proclivities – Public Enemy’s “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos” – but the final encore, the rolling, uptight “Vent” managed to keep me right through to the end.
I sense that this wasn’t actually his best, but it was still utterly hypnotic and overpowering. I can’t think of another live act to compare him too. Maybe Nine Inch Nails, but oozing Funk instead of occasionally groping for it.
-Gyrus-
