The Edinburgh Corn Exchange is only a
couple of years old and is basically an
alternative to the Glasgow Barrowlands Ballroom with less
character. It looks like a
J.D. Wetherspoon`s from the outside with a light aircraft hangar
stuck to its arse for a
venue. It was the first time Toots and I had been there so I
spent the best part of
Sunday afternoon trying like stink to find out just where the
fuck it was. Some mates
had been there before to see various assorted shite i.e. Ash,
Slipknot etc. “Ehhh, you go down Princes Street then take a
left, nah that's wrong, you go halfway down Princes Street, hop
over into the taxi lane, that takes you to the Train Station and
fuck I cant remember what happened after”. Cheers for the help
lads but I'll take my chances with a map.
We totally fluked it, we had a rough idea where it was in
relation to all the other shit in
Edinburgh so we jumped in my trusty M Reg Ford Fiesta put the
foot down and
powered through one set of traffic lights after another and kept
motoring down the one
street and as luck would have it we landed right on top of it.
We were early so we
went for a Pizza Hut (I recommend the twisty crust with that
dipping thing,
ahhhhhhhhhhllllll!!!!). By the time we went back the doors had
opened, we grabbed the
opportunity to have a quick smoke and then entered looking like
the son and daughter
of Howard Marks. They pretty much violated me at the door,
turfed me through a
metal detector then came a thorough frisking by a big bearded
security dude (much to
Toots` amusement - she got through without a hitch). I was
waiting on a full cavity
search but got through with my pipe and the stash still intact.
We didn’t have to wait long for Witness to come on, the crowd
seemed pretty eager
and gave them a warm welcome. They opened the set with a new
track which in truth
was an absolute corker, I hear the name is “Numbers”. I was
inebriated at the time but
it reminded me of a cross between “Til The Morning” and
“Audition” (if you can
picture that). The crowd loved it as well and gave them a pretty
big cheer.
“Warning Song” followed, that's what makes the live Witness
experience such a
godsend, “Warning Song” was one of the last songs I expected
them to play, not
because I think its a bad song, but because its a song that they
seem to have avoided ever playing live before. Gerard in
particular seems to be letting himself go onstage, he was moving
around a lot more and belting out the lyrics when the
opportunity arose. I don't know if he smoked less weed before
going onstage, by the look in his eyes that wasn't the case, it
seems as though they all have gained in confidence where playing
live is concerned. There was more looking into the crowd and
feeling the music instead of standing still, watching
their fingers which was a criticism aimed at the band by
reviewers of their early shows.
“My Boat” was next on the setlist. If the departure of
Julian Pransky-Poole has left any noticeable difference to the
overall sound it is most evident when playing the
big-sounding rockier tracks. The piano parts that Julian played
were shifted onto Ray's guitar and therefore the extra-heavy
edge was lost but they pulled it off even though it wasn't as
heavy, Gerard made up for it in vocally giving it his all during
the chorus and it actually sounded really good stripped down to
twin guitar, bass and drums.
When the applause for such an energetic track died down, Dylan
kicked off the
downbeat throb of the bassline to signal the beginning of “So
Far Gone”. The whole
place stood perfectly still, all eyes on the stage, Gerard put
on the fragile tone to
accompany the opening lines “unfortunate wasn't it”, the
audience remained silent, well apart from the odd “wahey”
and “go on yerself” from the back. It was shaping up to be
the most powerful rendition of the song I had seen. Then just as
the “with their dirty hands fuck up your records” line was
emitted from the speakers. One of the clowns on the mixing desk
did their best to ruin the moment. “Noooooooo!!!!” I thought
to myself as the screens for the Embrace show at the left and
right hand side of the stage clicked on, displaying a menu
screen with various options. “Dammit!!” the audience were
now distracted from the song and were staring at these screens
waiting for something to happen. The band exchanged confused
glances, Gerard simply grinned to himself and within the space
of about 5 seconds the crowd was back focusing on the band.
“You know we're only so far gone, I'm happy to go anywhere
just so long as I am moving”, John kicked in with the
battering drums and Ray played the atmospheric wall of sound a
treat. I was finishing off a pipe and was now floating on the
sound, heads were nodding as John's drumming grew more intense, Gerard's
vocals and Ray's guitar soared with emotion and the appreciation
for a genuinely gorgeous song reverberated round the hall.
People were clapping before the song even finished. It must have
given the band a tremendous lift.
It was time for another new song. Gerard announced it as “One
Is What One Is”.
Witness have never been a band who write a song then later on
write another song
which sounds the same, every song they write sounds like
something they have never
done before and this one was no exception. The hook of the song
was Ray's guitar riff
comprised of fast strumming while running his fingers up the
neck, reminiscent to the
style of Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead. If the standard of the
music penned for the
next album is in keeping with what we heard at this gig then it
is another diamond from what has to be the best kept secret in
British music.
“Still” a song which was missing from this set is one of
those special songs that you
hear once in a lifetime, its a song you want reserved for your
funeral, if you hear a
song in the same league as “Still” its rare that you hear a
song to match it from never
mind the same band but any other band for the rest of your
music-loving days. Witness have matched their towering
achievement that is “Still” with a song named “The
Ending”.
The ominous opening bars of “Cause And Effect” followed. It's
Witness at their
darkest and wouldn’t sound out of place on a Nine Inch Nails
record. Well, maybe
Nine Inch Nails without the pretentious satanic posturing. A guy
who I used to be at
school with was at the gig and I saw him after Witness finished.
He said Witness were shite and sounded like Proud Mary. He
obviously wasn't listening or didn’t understand cos “Cause
And Effect” aint Proud Mary.
They closed the set with “Pushchair”, it's another song that
could have suffered
without Julian to add his guitar parts. Apparently Julian was
drafted in to help hold it
together when playing live as most of “Before The Calm” was
written and recorded in
fragments and they hadn't been playing as a band very long.
Julian’s legacy in Witness has to be that they have got their
shit together playing live. Like I said “Pushchair” could
have suffered due to fewer hands, but they have got the
essential parts of the song spread evenly between each member.
Sure it sounds more stripped down than on the recording and they
will struggle to recreate that “bigger sound” of the
“Under A Sun” album in the future as a four piece but they
seem to know what their roles are within the band. Such was the
confidence on stage, Ray seemed to fancy a bit of improvisation
and towards the end of the song where it starts to sound a bit
drunk, he started to bend the strings and fart around with the
sounds of his guitar, it looked as though he wasn’t far off
doing a “Pete Townshend” and smash it up onstage but he
gained control of himself and the song came to a close along
with the set.
I feel confident enough about the gig to say that Witness have
won plenty of new
admirers and I'd imagine sales of “Before The Calm”
and “Under A Sun” will take a
sharp rise in the Edinburgh area over the coming weeks. Those
who aren't rushing to
the shops are most probably impressed enough to say that the
support band at the
Embrace gig were good and those like that dude from my school
just need to get their
ears checked. Fuck that they need dragged to a shrink.
The thing that was so satisfying about that performance was the
way that they won over a large crowd with no gimmicks. Just
purely great songs on display. Its encouraging considering that
they probably have won as many fans for themselves on this short
supporting tour as Universal/Island have won for them with the
recent poor promotional activity around "Under A Sun".
To simplify the feeling, they made getting up on a wet Monday
morning and going to work all the more bearable in fact they
made it insignificant and that's the great thing about great
music.
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Greig
Martin
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