Ash - London Kingston Peel - 23/11/00
4/5
By: Natalia Thorpe
Ash kicked off their small venues tour at your reporter's local tonight, The Peel, Kingston, providing the locals with a dream that came true in many ways.
After a perennial spell in the wilderness, Tim Wheeler's Motley Crue seem to have returned on top form; after the worryingly-received second-album, 'Nu-Clear Sounds', you'd have been forgiven for believing that their heady days of pop-punk nuggets and angel interceptors were drawing to a close, their thirst for fuller rock-thrills too uncompromising for the mainstream they once populated.
But, tonight, everyone's waiting for Ash as if they're heroes - a band that, in all reality, can easily manage to sell out large venues such as the 2,000-capacity Astoria three times over. When they finally come on, frontman Wheeler seems intent on enjoying himself, conducting more Ash stage-banter than usual - even during the midst of a raging 'Kung Fu', shouting, 'Wassup,' to the crowd. This was the best we've seen them: intimate and very alive.
The band is as impalpably tight as ever, it extremely strange to view Tim drop his guitar during a new song, 'Candy', to concentrate on vocals; in all, the premises formed an opportune chance to absorb their collateral of surprisingly immediate, new songs, and listen to a set-list voted for by fans of the band.
Alongside new material, such as 'Walking Barefoot', we get the likes of 'Girl from Mars', and it's a comfort to know that they haven't lost their knack of penning effective, indie-pop songs after the heavier, brooding, 'Nu-Clear...', with tracks, such as 'Shark', remaining ferociously infectious and melodic, but maintaining a harder edge. Tim seems to be showing his sense of humour tonight when, just before a typically defiant 'Numbskull', he asks for silence due to the fact that he's 'about to play a very personal ballad'. The crowd can't keep still; one heckler shouts for him to play some Cliff Richard before leaping in to the full-on sounds of the song. Despite Tim's precious Flying V guitar almost getting lost in the audience after it somehow went crowd-surfing, the band remained in strong spirits throughout the night.
The whole foursome are in healthy shape and it was ecstatically amusing to witness Rick (drums) walking around after the gig sporting a new Mohawk hairdo and dodgy bondage gear. Oh well. And now Tim's had the dodgy shaved look, maybe it's time for an on-tour fashion-consultant; any numbskull knows that, once their third new LP sets ears alight next year, they'll be able to afford one.
Artists in this article: Ash
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