Lone Gentleman Wolf About Town: Gary Numan (The Pleasure Principle Live)/ Severed Heads live at HQ May 16th

On a cold, dark night I am in the queue behind middle-aged Numanoids and greeted at the box office by mechanical girls. Ultraviolet tubes peel an inhuman purple glow out of the cosy blackness of the club and the bar is quiet but the venue is filling up with elder folks and small groups of younger cats. Severed Heads start nice and early and warm things up, two tubby chaps whose heyday was back in the 80's, sounding very much like an acid fried New Order. Their show is led by weird bad colour visuals that improve as the set goes on. Scary manmade subconscious industrial images, a cardboard cut out ecstacy tabby cat and cut up surrealist phrases like 'It is an oblique firefly overlocker' fuel this disturbed lucid dreaming acid house party. Really good stuff towards the end, a twisted party, 'Who's gonna tell my friend that she will die and go to hell...hear my
call from the floor at the heart of the party.'

My solo presence is suitable isolation for absorption into the aspergic fragile robotic world of Gary Numan. I have time and space to reflect on this. I became obsessed with The Pleasure Principle in the 90's when it was re-issued including a very fluid live version of 'Me, I Disconnect from you', from the 'Complex' single. I happily disconnected with everything and got into the feel, rhythmic creativity and blank bowie-esque vocals. It is the same age as me and has probably survived better. A rare kind of rock album with no guitars, just synthesizers, electronic pads and drums.

Gary ventures onstage, all in black with a shy smile and is visibly moved when the audience cheers. His mild aspergers syndrome potentially masking subtler emotional readouts from other humans. The post discovery knowledge of this does seem to appropriately feed back into his traditionally mechanical detached appearance and style. It sounds very 80's (as it would anticipating and influencing alot of 80's music and having been released in '79) but is heavy and non-sentimental. Airlane sounds strong and tight. Metal is cold and clear and crisp and heavy. The sound where I am standing, right in the middle of the room is just right. 'ME' is great, and reclaimed from Basement Jaxx in its original off kilter mysterious meditation. The live set is very close to the album but sounds so fresh and obviously much bigger and dirtier live. Gary is focussed yet cheeky, rocking a classic one finger synth style to great effect in 'Conversation'. His voice sounds better than ever too when he comes in over the cyclic mechanised arrangements.
 The P.P. set ends with Complex, Films then Cars which is heavy and perfect. 

They come back and Gary is synthless and free roaming with the mic going straight into 'Down in the Park'. The Foo Fighters can suck his metallic balls after this, not that their version was bad but you can't beat this beast at his own game. He veers into later career Nine Inch Nails influenced stuff, some of which is really creative and powerful and haunting but he had more dignity during the Pleasure Principle set. There is more posturing now which seems unnecessary. The NIN-esque version of 'Are Friends Electric?' is pretty good but a straight up version would have been stronger and more satisfying. Don't know how the ascending melodic part turned into a football chant either? Still the P.P. was perfect so who cares. Usually I would get the bus to a gig so I can drink but tonight I decided to take the car. A night drive in Francine through the neon quiet of the city and home. Its a monday night.