Rock City

Set list

1. Jesus Says
2. Who You Drivin’ Now? (Mudhoney cover)
3. A Life Less Ordinary
4. Death Trip 21
5. Oh Yeah
6. Fortune Teller
7. Goldfinger
8. Innocent Smile
9. Aphrodite
10. Girl From Mars
11. Wild Surf
12. Numbskull
13. Petrol

Encore

14. Lose Control
15. Jack Names the Planets
16. Kung Fu

Review

Ash had a smashing time on their last visit to Rock City on May 30, 1996. On a high after their debut album 1977 crash-landed in the UK charts at Number One, the band trashed their dressing room, let off fire extinguishers and clashed with the security team. As a result the venue slapped an indefinite ban on Ash ever returning, an action greeted with a breezy “Who Cares?” by the band. This cheek allegedly didn’t amuse some of the bouncers who had friends in low places.

“I was in America when I got the death threats” says bassist Mark Hamilton chirpily, relaxing backstage after the show in an infinitely more subdued manner tonight. “I don’t remember much about the night. But the catering staff here seem to remember it well.”

Tonight past indiscretions are ignored. A lot of changes have occurred in Ash’s world since these hazy days. The bands effervescent joi-de-vivre remains intact but, as the shocking new video for “Numbskull” testifies, the innocence and charming naivete of the young Irishmen has long since disappeared. Ash are cheeky pop cherubs no longer, which hasn’t exactly met with universal approval from their fan-base. Nu-clear Sounds, the infinitely darker and more dischordant follow up to 1977, failed to match it’s predecessor’s commercial success.

“Nu-clear Sounds was never going to be as commercial as 1977,” Hamilton shrugs. “We had a lot of shit to sort out and, whatever disappointments we might feel about chart positions, we’re in a healthier state as a band for having made that album the way it is.”

“Basically Nu-clear Sounds has freed us up to do whatever we want,” adds guitarist Charlotte Hatherley, clearly relishing the challenges ahead.

Next month Ah will decamp to their hometown to begin writing songs for their third album. They will be rehearsing in the Downpatrick garage where Tim, Mark and Rick first began kicking out the jams together, in a bid to recapture that raw, untutored vibe which made their early work such a refreshing slap in the face. In their heads they might be back there already, for tonight Ash attack like the hungriest band around. The band haven’t rehearsed for six weeks, this lack of slickness making their performance tonight faster, louder and rougher than ever before.

You can see where they’re coming from the moment “Jesus Says” screeches out with DJ Dick Kurtaine’s wicked scratching adding a hedonistic club-land vibe to the sleazy Stooges-inspired riff. The message is further drilled home by the inclusion of Mudhoney cover Who You Drivin’ Now? as song two, Wheeler and Hatherley trading ragged riffs and dirty harmonies with devilish glee. And when “Death Trip 21” erupts like a post-apocalyptic mutation uniting Sonic Youth and The Prodigy, it’s clear that the quartet aren’t treating this low-key gig as a gentle work-out.

Where Mark Hamilton’s caterwauling “Innocent Smile” once seemed like a token gesture to appease the lanky bassist’s Sonic Youth obsession, it’s now the pivotal moment in Ash’s live assault. “It’s the one bit in the set where anything can happen,” Hamilton later reveals. “It doesn’t always take off, but tonight was really good.”

Rock City certainly approves. Devil’s Horns hand signals are raised and screams ring out as the cutest frontline in rock jerk around like puppets harnessed to roaring, buckling feedback.

The shimmering “Aphrodite” seems purer and more achingly tender following this delicious drone, and then it’s a greatest hits sprint to the finish, with “Girl From Mars”, “Wild Surf”, “Petrol”, “Jack Names the Planets” and the ever-riotous “Kung Fu” rounding off a memorable show.

Paul Brannigan - Kerrang