Babyshambles - London Carling Academy Brixton - 05/10/06
2/5
By: Michael Cragg
Using the Underground in London must rank as one of the most frustrating and downright unpleasant things a person can do of an evening. Stuck on a tube on the Victoria line I had plenty of time to contemplate this. I was meant to be at the Brixton Academy to witness the technicolour blitzkrieg that is the Noisettes opening tonight's show, yet Mayor Ken's transport regime had other plans.
Of course, few were really there for them. The real draw was a certain band you may have heard of called Babyshambles. The freak-show that is Pete Doherty's life seems to have lead a lot of people to question whether the band actually still exists, and you get the feeling that the main aim of this tour is to put music back on the agenda.
But it's this very objective that proves too much of a hurdle for Pete Doherty, a clearly gifted lyricist but a man intent on relying solely on past musical glories to sustain his current status as the 'voice of a generation'. It's telling that the one true inspired moment tonight occurs when the band play 'Time For Heroes', the crowd roaring back each line with a barely contained sense of relief. This soon dissipates when another jam session turned song rears its ugly head and seems to drag on for five minutes.
Any excitement created by the band's arrival (on time as well), is soon suffocated by Doherty's obvious desire to be anywhere but on stage. A lacklustre 'Killamangiro' (featuring, somewhat inexplicably, a rapper) falls flat whilst the recently aired 'Beg, Steal Or Borrow' is muddled and unfocused. Whilst The Libertines were wonderfully ramshackle this takes it to a new nadir and whiffs not of youthful anti-establishment but instead a dead horse being flogged. As a band practice it was probably one of their more coherent moments, but as a gig in front of hoards of adoring kids it barely rises above embarrassing. Only the brief appearance of Kate Moss on 'La Belle et La Bete' raises the pulse as the night wares on, and once again the music has nothing to do with it.
Too many bands think that if they get the right look, or take the right drugs then they'll sound the business. Perhaps the Noisettes will get better as time goes on, and it seems a bit unfair to judge a band on only three songs but their affected, rock-by-numbers left me cold and reminded me that there are a lot of bands doing it a lot better.
All in all, it in fact seems a bit disingenuous to refer to Babyshambles as a band when clearly Doherty is the only attraction, and even he doesn't seem all that interested. He may have kicked the drugs (for the time being), but he's still not found the plot.
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