Welcome to the year 2002. Baggy jeans,
chains, tattoos designed by your five year old,
and scraggy hair is a must, football shirts are
a strictly enforced, “No!” as one
man young man was disheartened to hear. You must
be drunk to enter and wasted to enjoy; which luckily
every single person in Moho was.
As co-headliners the two bands have been alternating
the main slot each nightand to the fans delight
Puddle of Mudd are top of the billing in Manchester.
First up though Soil.
The strange shaped and sized venue was rammed,
bursting at the seams with the now ageing moshers
of yesteryear. A large proportion of the audience
was female which was refreshing to see at a gig
considered by most to be ‘metal’,
however considering the not too hefty sum of £16
was paid by most, many fans seemed to be sitting
down or simply talking throughout the entirety
of Soil’s set.
After so many years away, for both of these bands,
it seems only apt that the first thing we heard
was an opening riff of ‘The Boys Are Back
in Town’ by Thin Lizzy and the anticipation
was rife as Soil took to the stage. The 10th anniversary
of their most popular and successful album to
date ‘Scars’ sees the band reunite
with the tiny Ryan McCombs, who is just about
as vicious as he is tall. It was clear before
the band started that the bass was just too loud,
but it only became more apparent as they took
to the stage meaning that the metal bands chunky,
industrial, nu-metal sound was filtered through
reverb and fuzz. While the large majority were
rather subdued and happy to sing along to themselves,
those who had fought to get to the front made
it worthwhile. A section of hands were constantly
afloat and happy to be feet away from their idols
as the band straddled the barrier-less stage for
over an hour. It was hit such as ‘Redefine’
and, obviously, ‘Halo’ which received
the most audible response from the crowd, even
the slightest mention of ‘Scars’ by
Ryan was received with riotous applause.
The issue with Soil’s set didn’t necessarily
appear to be them, as they were quite clearly
relishing being back on stage together and Ryan’s
performance was fiercely energetic; proven by
his sweat afterwards, but their sound as a whole
just wasn’t up to scratch. Their songs merged
into one and technically acting as support for
Puddle this evening at an hour their set was too
long, this sense of lengthiness was not helped
by a change over time that caused half the audience
to regress to small children in a Benjamin Button
like homage; luckily Puddle Of Mudd never possessed
a skill for maturity.
Kicking things off in classic fashion was ‘Out
Of Fashion’ and to the pleasure of every
single person in the room the bands set largely
consisted of tracks from Come Clean and they were
delivered with the clean vocal poise they have
been trying to live up to ever since. Now Puddle
Of Mudd have never been a band to outshine anyone,
but their set just hammered down how terrible
Soil were and how never before has nostalgia sounded
so good.
While the crowd this time round were much more
confident with crassly shouting along, those who
wanted a mosh were in the minority and the drunken
slurs of Wes ‘skinny legs’ Scantlin
didn’t make anybody more willing. While
vocally he sounded fine and the tracks like ‘Control’
and a half decent cover of ‘TNT’ showed
the band are still great at what they do, their
effort level and showmanship was way below par.
Apart from a couple of overly long songs their
set seemed to be over freakishly fast; as if they
couldn’t wait to get off stage, it makes
you wonder just how well those new guys are working
out.
The thing with watching a band like Puddle is
that you know what you’re going to get and
so you can’t complain too much when they
deliver exactly what you expect, nothing more
and nothing less, which is exactly what they do,
but after eight years and one dreadful Download
experience it couldn’t hurt for them to
try and convince a packed house that they aren’t
just continuing to coast by on the aftermath of
grunge and a couple of songs.
Obviously you know what those couple of songs
are as did everybody for about three miles either
side of Moho, sadly Wes didn’t appear to
know the words to ‘Blurry’ which was
received loud and clear by the audience who sang
it for him after a false start. While the lyrics
might be shocking when you think about it, it’s
a song that so many of us grew up with and it
was pretty spectacular to hear live. If you’re
sick of hearing that one, then you will agree
with the band on the next joke song which to their
dismay is now a fan favourite, it could of course
only be ‘She Fucking Hates Me’. Closing
the set this evening with no encore the band played
through their least favourite song as the crowd
stirred themselves into an adolescent frenzy of
screaming rapture.
It was an evening of nostalgia and perhaps the
crowd was too old to enjoy it, or perhaps they
don’t like the songs they once played to
death as much as the thought, but like many things
revisited it was ever so slightly disappointing.
While Soil and Puddle may both love the dirt on
the earth’s surface they sound nothing alike
and play a completely different show, but from
a tour together hopefully they can learn what
makes each band watchable and restore themselves
to former glories.
Soil 2.5/5
Puddle OF Mudd 3.5/5
Review By Lauren Mullineaux |
