Time to excel yourself or Long live the Scream!

Astoria, Tottenham Court Road, 6th April 2006

In the deep mid-winter/early spring (who can tell the difference?), in the heart of old London town, inebriated already on a half bottle of (medicinal) red wine, supped at the Phoenix theatre bar, myself and Vodkaslut amble our merry way down to the Astoria to witness the latest venture of the great revivalists and reinventors, Primal Scream.

Much to our delight, the Scream belt out their era-defining anthem Rocks not once but twice during the course of the evening, sandwiching in the dancy dancy psychedelic Screamadelica hits, and the anti-globalisation call to arms Swastika eyes to rapturous applause from the REALLY QUITE HAPPY INDEED audience (a couple of guys near us in the pit were well immersed in their own private universe).

Complaints? Not many. It was so good to be at a gig by a band that has a proper back catalogue and physically remembers the eighties and nineties, rather than just referencing them guilelessly (I'm in too good a mood to name names on that score) .

A rendition of ongoing favourite (I'm gonna) cry myself blind would have been nice, but I wasn’t too heartbroken over its absence and perhaps it would have ruined the upbeat vibe that dominated the evening. Instead we got new song Country girl which prompted the only intelligible intro of the evening from Glaswegian Bobby Gillespie (not that it was that inspired, basically it was ‘This is from our new album’).

All in all it was the best evening I’ve had at the Astoria since the Kaisers in 2005, and the best gig so far this year apart from The Strokes at the Hammersmith Apollo.

Purveyors of intergalactic cool. Long live the Scream!