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Total US troop deaths in Iraq to date (09/01/07) since 03/20/03: 3739

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As promised, I was in New York City over the 4th-of-July weekend, and among other things took in the July 6th performance of The Fall at the Knitting Factory. Presently I have neither time nor energy to explain why this band plays such a significant role in the history of Western music, so I'll just skip ahead and tell you that Sunday night's performance was an energetic and satisfying one, superior to the last time I saw them (Nov. 2001, at the very same venue; with the obvious exception of Mark E. Smith, guitarist Ben Pritchard is the only band member from the 2001 show to return for the current tour) and much better than the semi-legendary meltdown shows of April 1998. We got a decent sampling of tracks from the still-unreleased Country on the Click and the last three studio albums, as well as some deathless Mancunian chestnuts, such as Mere Pseud Mag Ed., Mr. Pharmacist (yes, I know it's a cover version) and the classic I Am Damo Suzuki. However, the band's present line-up produces a sort of monolithic garage-vamp sound instead of the spindly dissonant clatter that first attracted me to this most idiosyncratic of music groups way back in the very early 80s, and I miss that sound. MES' latest wife Elanor adds some decent keyboard textures but it's not the same, and yeah I know the point is that MES can do as he pleases (which he certainly did on Sunday, howling into the club's sweltering atmosphere with or w/o a mike, fiddling/MESsing with equipment knobs, even yanking the band offstage after five songs w/o explanation then returning with them less than a minute later still w/o explanation, and does the guy ever eat any food, I mean jeez, look at these pics!) but I have my preferences like anyone else. Did I have a good time? Yeah mate, and I'm seeing them again tonight in Philadelphia, in a venue whose air-conditioning I bloody well hope is more powerful than that of the Knitting Factory. May even try to take some pictures.

I hope a certain fellow living in Japan is happy with this posting.
posted by Red at 4:26 PM