Super Furry Animals - Cambridge Corn Exchange - 7/4/04
4/5
By: Matt Tomiak
Set-List: 'Slow Life', '(Drawing) Rings Around The World', 'Golden Retriever', 'God! Show Me Magic', 'Drygioni', 'Do Or Die', 'Liberty Belle', 'Hello Sunshine', 'Run Christian Run', 'Cityscape Sky Baby', 'Some Things Come From Nothing', 'Juxtaposed With U', 'Hermann Loves Pauline', 'Play It Cool', 'International Language of Screaming', 'Receptacle For The Respectable', 'Out of Control', 'Calimero', 'The Man Don't Give A F**k'.
To anyone not accustomed to SFA's brand of bizarre abandon, tonight's encore is - well, a bit different. Twenty minutes' worth of thumping hard house resonates across an empty stage, intercepting traditional Super Furry animals set-closer 'The Man Don't Give A F**k'. Our Furries then return to the stage, belt out the climactic last few incendiary lines and then proceed to push the mic-stands over. Images of George Bush and Tony Blair flash up on a big screen behind them, whilst a continuous recorded loop declares that 'all governments are liars and murderers.' Oh yeah - and the band are dressed as yetis. In the midst of the madness, a disembodied hand scrawls messages of gratitude, goodwill and tonight's Champions League results on bits of paper from backstage that are beamed onto the aforementioned screen.
Yes, ten years in the business and what most bands would consider too outlandish, ambitious, or just plain unworkable equates to just another day at the office for the Welsh mavericks.
The stage-props include nine-foot, smoke-emitting cut-out volcanoes, over-sized 'Power Rangers' helmets and 'Yellow Submarine'-style animation. The music's pretty class too. The quintet now have six albums of mind-bending music to draw from, a fact highlighted as 2001's harmony-tastic '(Drawing) Rings Around The World', last summer's 'Golden Retriever' and a rendition of the still-ace 'God! Show Me Magic' from all the way back in '96 kicks off a cracking show... Throughout, indeed, each LP is represented here in some form (even the band's misguided 'Guerilla' contributing the wig-out bliss of 'Some Things Come From Nothing').
And yet whilst the Super Furry-patented brand of delicious, delirious pop stylings has never quite penetrated the mainstream, they have, over the course of the last decade, established themselves as one of the foremost acts in the dastardly sphere of alternative music. The Super Furry Animals in 2004 - still the ultimate trip.
Artists in this article: Super Furry Animals
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