Had fun dressing up for this one. I wore a long, loose skirt and a loose, ethnic-y top with no layers underneath, and my hair loose, because bouncing is a whole lot more fun with hair that flies everywhere, not to mention that no hairstyle would hold up to that much bouncing.
Nalen is somewhat of a strange venue. It's a very, very, very neoclassical building, one which seemed slightly embarrassed by hosting a rock concert, of all things. OTOH, it was extremely well organized; the flow of people worked perfectly, and the cloakroom, bar and merch stall were models of efficiency. Plus, water fountains are the best possible idea at such a concert.
We missed most of the support band, The Headlines. They weren't bad, a bit on the shouty side but bouncable enough. The weird thing was the combination of this fairly punk-y band, with the atmosphere of a cocktail party in the concert hall. The attendees were standing around, drinking wine and chatting, clapping politely between songs and generally failing to behave like a rock concert audience at all!
Then the real Levellers showed up. I was a bit concerned that I wouldn't know the set because I haven't really been following the Levellers since Zeitgeist (1995). I needn't have worried; they opened with the classic One hundred years of solitude and it was all bouncy joy from there on. There were a few songs that were new to me but they're all great. The cocktail party crowd were not the easiest of audiences, but the Levellers are old pros and had no trouble getting people dancing; by the end of the first song the atmosphere was everything you'd expect from a Levellers concert.
I called it primal, but in some ways it's very much the product of a highly complex society. The musical instruments, the sound technology, the marketing and economics of such a tour, and of course the political scene that the Levellers are angry about. It's a bit depressing to hear a lyric like
The year is 1991and realize that all the political problems Sell out was responding to back then have got worse in the intervening time. It made
The set included Hope Street which I would be tempted to vote for as the best thing the Levellers have ever done. And Men-an-Tol which is pretty much a permanent fixture. I had almost forgotten the existence of Carry me but as soon as I heard the opening chords I was taken right back to the time when
All in all, a brilliant night, and thanks so much to