Opener shortstraw. (lowercase with a full stop; very important) benefits from a keen, early crowd that’s shown up in force. Erin West delivers bile-soaked monologues with a snarl and a wink that splits the difference between Kae Tempest and slowthai, though the live drums and frenetic energy ensure that she goes harder than either of those two. The dour energy never devolves into self-pity despite the social malaise and grim backdrop (Coventry) to these songs. Proudly displaying an “I Love Scotland” t-shirt and sweating through her mum’s tights, shortstraw. earns a bevy of new fans with a set that has “breakthrough artist” written all over it.
And from the young upstarts to the old guard, Sleaford Mods are given a hero’s welcome when the emerge with typical nonchalance (after the world’s shortest soundcheck from beat man Andrew Fearn). Tonight’s show is part of a run around a bunch of small venues, celebrating the ten year anniversary of their breakthrough (and best) album, Divide and Exit. It’s been a while since the duo were playing rooms of less than 1500 capacity, let alone the medium-sized festivals they headline these days, and they radiate a genuine joy and energy at being back on the stages that made them.
The whole of Divide and Exit is played, mostly in the first half of the set, and some of these rarely seen songs crackle with a novel intensity that comes with not being played to death, like ‘You’re Brave’ and ‘Under the Plastic and N.C.T.’ Jason Williamson even breaks his usual dour stoicism with some laughs and banters with the crowd a little more than usual, between obligatory preening and water bottle antics. Fearn meanwhile is having the absolute time of his life. Gone is the subtle headbanging of yesteryears; now it’s full-on jelly arms and wild pogo-ing (and headbanging).
Some of the newer songs suffer from comparison with the ferocious abandon of 2014 Sleaford Mods; ‘UK Grim’ feels surprisingly anodyne next to the weight of ‘Smithy’ or ‘Jolly Fucker’. Similarly, the songs with guest vocals (‘Force 10 from Navarone’, ‘Nudge It’, ‘Mork and Mindy’) take you out of the moment with their playback vocals, despite being great album cuts. But mostly the non Divide and Exit songs are a wealth of riches: the singalong capers ‘B.H.S.’ and brilliant ‘West End Girls’ cover, the hilarious ‘Tied Up in Nottz’ and the amazingly solid cutting-room casualty ‘Git Some Balls.’
The energy rides a steady high all night, but a closing one-two punch of ‘Jobseeker’ and ‘Tweet Tweet Tweet’ silences any doubts that the Mods might have lost their touch now they’re famous and all that. The bludgeoning beats, scathing social commentary and laugh-out-loud one-liners remain firmly intact and Williamson makes sure it all hangs together amid shouts, squawks and the occasional bleat. Imitators have come and gone since the release of Divide and Exit ten years ago, but no-one can do it like the originals.
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