Big Black, Hammersmith Clarendon, July 1987 Part 2

As we piled into the Clarendon, which was upstairs if I remember correctly we were greeted by the cacophony of either Head of David or A.C. Temple. I believe it was the latter. These British bands were on the Mute Records sub-label Blast First, which released Big Black and Sonic Youth material in the UK. I don’t remember much of the opening band’s set but I do remember them finishing up and the stage being completely quiet and the venue being full of seriously rowdy British skater punks who were roaring abuse at the empty stage in the hope that Big Black would magically appear and start playing right away. Next thing a small, skinny dude, wearing torn jeans, spiky hair, John Lennon glasses and a Die Kreuzen t shirt, stepped onto the stage, walked up to the mic, politely (very politely actually) asked everyone to quiet down and said that the band would be out in a minute. The crowd went ballistic, for this was Steve Albini, Steve Albini playing some of Big Black's last shows, because the band had already decided to break up and this London show was part of their final tour.

He looked like he should have been playing in The Feelies, but looks can be deceptive as we all know. He tinkered with the drum machine a bit, which sounded extremely loud, and left the stage again. Now the crowd was fit to be tied or corralled for that matter, and stage diving and people throwing ensued. Albini stepped onstage once more, made polite overtures that were greeted by abuse, swearing and roaring which all had a very British accent (in all senses of the word) to them. This time, while courteously assuring the crowd that the show was about to begin, he strapped on his guitar, not over his shoulder, but around his waist. This looked pretty odd and was an omen of what was to come. Next thing bassist Dave Riley (who started out as an assistant audio engineer for Parliament and Funkadelic in his native Detroit) and guitarist Santiago Durango came on, and attached their instruments in the same fashion.

Albini stepped up to the mic again, and I can’t remember if he made any more civil overtures, but I do remember him shouting “one two, fuck you!” into the mic and a barrage of driving, hard, but melodic noise emanating from the stage. The crowd went crazy, and I was as gobsmacked as I’ve ever been by music in my life. In fact I felt like that guy (Peter Murphy from Bauhaus) in the old Maxell ads from the ‘80s, with his hair and tie blowing back from the sound. I think the first song was “Passing Complexion” (see the youtube clip on the previous Big Black post) and Big Black followed with over an hour of pile driving, deranged machine rock, tinged with the brutal funk of Riley’s bass playing.

Albini opened every song with “One two fuck you,” and they ploughed through “Jordan Minnesota,” “Kerosene,” “Bad Penny,” “Cables,” and more. And after completely laying waste to the crowd — and my psyche — they finished with a cover version of Wire’s “Heartbeat,” and were joined onstage by Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis of Wire, Gilbert on guitar and I think Lewis was on keyboards, which were rolled in especially for this song. This was the final gobsmacking to top all gobsmackings and at the end of the song as everyone left the stage Albini said "...and tonight we walked with giants..." It certainly felt that way to me, and walking back out into the warm London night my buddy Keith asked me, “what didya think of that Orr?” No words were necessary, memories — a little foggy now — of that night are etched on my brain forever.

Orr